Found Bedbugs in a Hotel? What to Do Next: Wandsworth

Most people find them the same way: a small brown insect on the sheet, a line of bites in the morning, or dark spotting along the mattress edge. The reaction is to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Slow down for a moment first, because the suitcase you grab on the way out is the thing that carries them home.

In the Room: Stop and Collect Evidence

1. Stop unpacking. Close the suitcase and move it off the bed, carpet and upholstered chairs, onto a hard floor or into the bath.
2. Catch the insect if you can, on clear tape or in a small container. Hotels take a specimen more seriously than a description.
3. Photograph the insect, any spotting on the sheets or mattress, and your bites.
4. Note the room number and the time.

Telling the Hotel

Go to reception in person and explain calmly what you found, then follow it up in writing by email so there is a record. Ask for a different room, and ask that it is not next to, above or below the one you are leaving, since bedbugs move between neighbouring rooms more easily than across a building.

Whether the hotel refunds you or offers something else is between you and them; we cannot advise on that. If you run a hotel and want to know how to handle a report from a guest, our London guide on what to do when a guest reports bedbugs is written for you.

Moving Rooms or Leaving

Before you settle in the new room, pull back the sheet at the corners and look along the mattress seams and the back of the headboard. Keep your case on a luggage rack or hard floor, away from the bed, for the rest of the stay.

If you decide to leave the hotel altogether, treat the luggage exactly as you would if you were staying. A different hotel does not help if the bags come with you unchecked.

Packing to Go Home

Pack on a hard surface, not the bed. Put clothes, worn and unworn, into sealed plastic bags inside the case, so that anything in them stays contained until it reaches a washing machine. Shake out shoes and check the pockets and seams of any bag that sat on the floor or the bed. Keep the washbag separate.

On the journey, keep the case on the floor of the train or car rather than on a seat.

Coming Home

Do not take the suitcase into a bedroom. Unpack it in a hallway, kitchen or bathroom with a hard floor, and take the sealed bags straight to the washing machine. Wash on the hottest setting the fabric allows and follow it with a hot tumble dry, which is the step that does the work. Anything that cannot be washed hot is covered in our guide to wool, silk and delicate fabrics.

Vacuum the inside of the case, especially the lining seams, the zip tracks and the pockets, and empty the vacuum outside. Store the case away from the bedrooms.

The Weeks After

Sleep in your own bed as normal. Over the next few weeks, look at the mattress seams and the bed frame now and then for the early signs: small dark spots, pale shed skins or live bugs. If you find any, or if you want certainty, an inspection in Wandsworth from £120 tells you whether anything came home before you pay for treatment.

Bites vary, and some people do not react at all. For a skin reaction, speak to a pharmacist or GP; call 999 for any signs of a severe allergic reaction.

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