The presence of bed bugs requires immediate attention to prevent their spread and mitigate guest complaints. There is never a good time for bed bugs, but the worst times to have them are either in the middle of a busy vacation season or during a labor shortage. By focusing on preventive measures, hotels can minimize these inopportune infestations. Bed bug prevention leads to significant time and resource savings for your staff—and an unmarred stay for your guests. If you do not have a bed bug prevention plan in place, consider the following four steps:
- Collaborate with Pest Control Professionals: Establishing a strong partnership with professional pest control companies can streamline the process of addressing bed bug issues. An industry standing practice should comprise engaging pest control experts specializing in bed bug management to expedite the identification, treatment, and elimination of infestations. This collaboration can provide you with a clean “bill of health” for your property, allowing you to hopefully restart at “bed bug zero.”
- Schedule Periodic Inspections: With a pest control relationship established, implementing an inspection routine (that may even include canine surveillance) becomes paramount, handling the “overall facility-wide picture of bed bugs,” while allowing hotel staff to focus daily on localized signs of bed bugs activity. Based on your facility’s bed bug history, you can conduct these inspections quarterly, semi-annually or annually. By conducting inspections in guestrooms, common areas, laundry facilities and even non-public spaces devoted to your staff, a pest control professional can detect introductions before they develop into infestations. Early detection enables prompt action, preventing the need for extensive treatments, avoiding the disruption of multiple rooms throughout the facility and maintaining the pristine reputation of your establishment—both to the public and the staff.
- Proactive Staff Training: After the professional inspection stage, providing hotel staff with comprehensive bed bug awareness and prevention training enables and empowers them to identify potential risks, alert management and take preventive measures. Bed bug prevention should be added to your formal housekeeping protocols, making it as central to your operations as any other service. These steps barely increase the time spent in each room. The benefit? This codified, regular monitoring deters one of the more damaging events that can affect your business. The addition to your protocol is simple: merely have your staff visually look for signs of bed bug activity during linen exchange. Staff that is trained to recognize telltale bed bug signs can immediately report their findings to management for a more thorough inspection by a pest pro and treatment steps, if needed, avoiding the financial and reputational impact an infestation may cause. At the root level, this preserves your bottom line by avoiding the financial and reputational impact an infestation may cause.
- Implement Cutting-Edge Technology: ActiveGuard® Mattress Liners are an additional and invaluable tool for preventing infestations. The simple “set-it-and-forget-it” nature of these liners stops bed bugs introduced onto the property from laying eggs, preventing a single bug from laying more than 100 eggs in its lifetime. Installing ActiveGuard on your beds means 24/7 protection for two years, providing peace of mind for you and your staff. Combined with professional inspections and daily staff awareness, these liners provide an extra layer of defense against breakthrough infestations.
By adopting these time- and resource-efficient steps, hotels can minimize the disruption and revulsion caused by bed bug infestations. This allows for the reallocation of resources towards other crucial tasks, such as providing exceptional guest service, training staff, and focusing on other areas of your business. This all leads to improved operational efficiency, increased guest satisfaction, and a healthier bottom line.