Well, you must certainly have some additional information from the OP or the hotel that the rest of us don't have, such as the number of nights the room was unoccupied prior to checking in. Would be helpful if you could share that as evidence that hotel staff ignored the issue or isn't trained in dealing with a notoriously difficult problem. Some insects and pests are easy to control preemptively and others aren't...you may wish to do some research on this specific issue.

I'm not approaching this from the perspective that i have been victimized and gee do you think i could squeeze some comp out of this. My question is more along he lines ofnwhether hotel mgt has, in the experience of my esteemed ft friends, generally volunteered it under these circumstances.
I have stayed at this hotel prviously.
My room was a two bed room. Both beds were used last night but only one showed any evidence.
If we travel enouh we are all bound to run into most things eventually. BB's are becoming a very serious problem. I think i know what my response would be if i was mgt, but im not in hrat role. In talking to houswkeeping with their seriously limited english ibdoubt that adequate training is going to happen here.

I always wash my clothes and bag (I made a special washable garment bag just for my bed bug obsessive fear) the moment I return home. Everything goes into the wash and a dry immediately afterward.

Bedbugs like small places, if your bag was in the room then there is a change that it had a bug or two in it. Personally, I'd ditch the bag in a location far from home. Your toiletries can be tossed. I'd put my toiletry bag in the freezer for a few weeks. Cold will eventually kill any hitchhikers (but heat does it much faster).

Here's my protocol:
1) Ditch bags and pay a coin laundry place near the hotel to wash all my clothes.
2) Buy tossable, washable (which I wash before my clean clothes go in it) duffle bag at Walmart/Target/whereever.
3) Toss my toiletries and get new.
4) Freeze any small stuff that I can't toss for 2 weeks.
5) Disassemble my cell/laptop/other non-tossable electronics to check for very, very small first/second stage bedbug. A hot hairdryer will encourage them to come out of hiding to look for more suitable hiding place. I believe that 140 degree is the kill 'em temp.
6) Anything that can be put in the dryer at a hot temp, will be there for a cycle.
7) Wash everything the minute I get home.

Good job on checking! Prevention is the best way.

How to check for bed bugs:
1) Don't bring your stuff into the room until it's thoroughly checked.
2) If (1) isn't possible put all your stuff in the tub, since bed bugs aren't likely to hang out there unless the infestation is really bad.
3) Lift up sheets and mattress cover to examine the mattress. Don't just look for bugs. They are small and they hid. You might not see them. Look instead for evidence, i.e. fecal matter. If you see little brownish or red-ish dots, you don't want that room!
4) Run a business card around the headboard, wall side of furnishings, pictures, mirrors, light fixtures, any small crevice that a bed bug might like to hide. You should check the card often. It should come out clean. No bugs or fecal matter evidence. With practice you'll learn what is paint transfer and what isn't.
5) Check other furnishing in the room as you would the bed.
6) Move furniture to examine the walls behind. You don't want to see bugs or brown-ish dots.
7) Check the sheets for bugs and/or fecal matter spots.
8) Use a hair dryer on the mattress. Heat will make the bugs active. They don't like heat. They will look for cooler places.
9) Lift the mattress to examine beneath it.
10) Use a pen light in dark places.

If you are really crazy like me, you will keep all your electronics zipped up in ziplock bags when they aren't in use in a well lit area under your hawk eye. A big enough ziplock bag can easily fit your laptop bag.

If the OP found evidence then there is no reason that housekeeping shouldn't have as well. In the hotel business in this day and age every employee should be trained in what to look for. The truth is that a room might be infested for some time before evidence appears. But when fecal matter appears, housekeeping should be on top of it.

Bedbugs aren't something that you can treat preemptively and getting rid of them is tough business. This is why housekeeping needs to know exactly what to look for. Get the bugs out of the room before they move next door.

University of Kentucky College of Agriculture has a great page for discovery, control and treatment of cimicids / bedbugs here. (Unfortunately too many people believe in inadequate treatments like cold, alcohol, etc.)

Diatomaceous earth powder, properly dusted, can be one control tool (works on blattids / cockroaches and other insects as well).

Actually, yes, at a Doubletree in Orlando. I found a bedbug on my nightshirt and took some pictures of it with my phone. I had to Google what it was because I'd never seen one before. Upon learning that it fit the description of bedbug, I notified the front desk...kinda took the attitude that "hey, these things happen and just thought you'd want to know". They asked if there was anything they could do to make it up to me and I replied that, while I didn't expect any compensation, I am a total points junkie and I wouldn't complain if they wanted to throw some points into my account :D.

They comped me 30,000 HHonors points. ^^^

Silliest post I've seen in ages in this forum.

[QUOTE=It'sHip2B^2;19528949]If the OP found evidence then there is no reason that housekeeping shouldn't have as well. In the hotel business in this day and age every employee should be trained in what to look for. The truth is that a room might be infested for some time before evidence appears. But when fecal matter appears, housekeeping should be on top of it.

Bedbugs aren't something that you can treat preemptively and getting rid of them is tough business. This is why housekeeping needs to know exactly what to look for. Get the bugs out of the room before they move next door.[/QUOTE

Strange chainnof events actually: housekeeping had cleaned our room...kinda...but had left the beds alone. I was departing after night #1, so as is typical i pulled back the sheets to make sure i wasnt leaving anything behind. And what to my wondering eyes does appear but a thing crawling across the bed. I knew what it was (due to OCD) immediately...thdn noticed 4 "red streaks" on the bed.
Based on my conversation wih housekeeping i would seriously doubt if they make any effort to contemplate the existence of sytoms of bed bugs as they hastily try to prep a room.

I think i'll email mgt and axe them to call me.

Bolding mine. Your link even says that freezing for 2 weeks is adequate enough to kill bedbugs.

Just curious, how often do you guys travel? I am sometimes in 3 different hotels per week

Bed bugged!
 

I'm usually in a hotel 2 nights a week over perhaps 25-30 weeks a year.

Make sure you report.

JDiver;

There is a great deal of good information presented in your link to the Kentucky College of Agriculture article. The detailed photos examples are all quite excellent.

I think we need to divide solutions into those offered by licensed and bonded professionals, and those of the everyday traveller member here on FT.

Having witnessed demonstrations of most in a laboratory setting, none are either 100 % effective, or lasting unfortunately. As you know, one is dealing with live and mobile cimicids, and blattids which can be poisoned, frozen, heated, and suffocate easily, and their eggs which are more difficult to find, isolate and ultimately eradicate.

I'm sure you suggested this with the best of intentions, but the liberal use or misuse of Diatomaceous earth ( a common pool filter media ) even by a licensed professional exterminator has it's own set of contraindications, silicosis being well documented with routine exposure.

And how exactly does one do this while travelling on business or on vacation ? " Hello Room Service ? Can you send up a bottle of Dom Perignon on ice with a little bag of DE on the side ? I think we have bedbugs "

One subsection of worth in your cited link article is regarding caregivers entering an possibly infested location, which could easily be applied to those of the traveller.

A person " may not aquire " any during a short visit (emphasis wisely always on the word " may not " ), but the longer the time one stays, the higher the risk of exposure. Skilled nurses and caregivers always carry a small flashlight too, which is a good tool for any traveller.

Armed with the detailed photos from your link, it would be wise for anyone encountering such obvious visual infestations in bedding, and furniture to vacate the room immediately, and request one that is clean. You are quite correct that in those observed situations Isopropyl, or what you call alcohol, or even the suggested pesticides in the article would not work, given the testing, time, treatment involved, if such severe infestion was discovered. Isopropyl by the way, is one of the few effective sanitizing agents for surfaces and air systems approved for usage in occupied Aircraft, Aerospace and Healthcare facilities, while DE and pesticides are not.

And if this is the level of infestation some of our FT members have observed, I would recommend first calmly documenting that condition with a few good digital photos, then ask for a polite but firm refund, and then all things considered, leave the hotel.

I have honestly yet to see anything like this in our travels, including the upper and lower Amazon, and am more concerned with the real long term hazards associated with Dengue, West Nile, and Leishmaniasis. There is only so much one can do when travelling realistically regarding hygienic and healthy precautions.

Been to over 50 countries, stayed in many places less than $1.00/nt and never even considered the previous suggestions of freezing, disassembling electronics, heating, washing, chemical torture and haven't had a problem. I think I'll stick with that strategy.

Oh, compensation? Nope

It most certainly is