As the double doors of your Honeymoon Suite swings open, you and your wife have a quick glimpse into your meticulously furnished room that emerges much more inviting than the pictures you saw on the internet. A hypnotizing picturesque view of a roaring ocean with silhouettes of soft mountains and whispering palms trees in the background steals your breath while you feel your shoulders drop in relaxation and a smile satiates your lips. You turn and tip the bellhop, close the doors, plop on the king-size bed like two little kids, release a cleansing breath, and embraced in each other’s arms you fall fast asleep.
Two hours later, you wake to take a shower and “get your party started”. You pick up your luggage, set it on the bed and open it to get out your clothing and shower items. After taking a few minutes to place your clothing items into drawers, hanging items in the closet, you both head for the shower.
The evening dinner, cocktails on the beach and musical combo finished off your first evening as you head back to your lavish beachfront suite. This was exactly what you had envisioned and much more than you had ever expected.
At two in the morning, your wife wakes scratching herself senselessly. She approaches the bathroom mirror and notices red marks all over her neck, arms and torso. She wakes you, shows you the marks, and tells you they are very itchy. You told her sand fleas on the beach must have bitten her and that she should take a shower.
Your wife jumps into a HOT shower to soothe her skin and crawls back in bed. All night long, she tosses and turns while scratching herself mad and wakes totally exhausted.
Upon awakening, room service delivers coffee and croissants, as you get ready for your helicopter ride across the islands. After your ride, you stop for lunch and cocktails on the deck overlooking the ocean and head back to the room for a quick refresher nap before dinner.
Meanwhile, your wife is still scratching herself silly, so you stop at the hotel’s convenience store in search of a healing cream or lotion. She lathers herself with the lotion and distressingly crawls into bed for a quick nap.
This continues for two more days. Your wife is completely despondent, tossing and turning each night and waking each morning with bloodstains all over the sheets (which you both think is from her scratching all night long).
On the fourth day, your wife said she wants to go and see a doctor. You call for a taxi and go. The doctor suggested that the bites “might be from bed bugs”, as they have a bed bug problem in many of the hotels on the island. He gave her another type of cream to help in the healing and assist in the itchiness.
When arriving back at the hotel you approach the front desk and ask if they knew anything about the possibility of bed bugs being in the room you are in. A quick reply of “we don’t know anything about any bed bugs being in our hotel”, came from their mouth.
Not satisfied, you go back to the room to tear it apart. Starting with the bed, you pull off all the comforters and sheets and expose the mattress piping. Low and behold, there were small clusters of little black marks and small bugs up and down each side. At that point, you pulled the top mattress off and looked behind the headboard exposing even more. Since you have never seen a bed bug, you have no clue what they look like but the bed was literally “infested” with some kind of bugs. You call the front desk and ask for immediate assistance in your room.
They send up maintenance and after their investigation, they suggested to the front desk that they move you to another room. You now have to pack up all your belongings from inside dresser drawers, closets and the bathroom, and move to another room. Of course, they did not have an ocean front room (which you paid extra for) available.
Overall, this entire dream honeymoon turned out to be a nightmare for this couple. This particular room had beyond a simple couple of bed bugs and had an infestation that had been there for some time. This is not a mere oversight. It is obvious that their housekeeping staff was not trained to find signs of bed bugs. The resort never treated their belongings and this couple brought home bed bugs.
These types of situations happen more than you can imagine and do not have to turn out this way. Regular inspections provided by bed bug scent detection dogs can help to eliminate any possibility of providing a room that has an infestation of bed bugs to guests.
MassBedBugBusters has been providing scent detection services to the hospitality industry for four years. Having regular inspections keeps “infestations” from happening.
Knowing the signs of and checking your rooms before you take up occupancy can eliminate any surprises. For educational materials on how to pack and what to look for please contact us prior to booking a vacation or business trip.
During the month of January 2015, MassBedBugBusters is providing home inspections for those who think they might have brought home bed bugs from their holiday trips but are unsure.
Call us for a $25.00 Coupon towards your first inspection!By Denise Donovan, founder of IBBRA.org
