If you are a hospitality and housing professional, you likely already know that effectively warding off bed bugs requires constant vigilance. However, there are a few proven steps you can take that will alleviate a lot of strain in the long run. For your convenience, here is some information on bed bugs specifically for hospitality and housing professionals.
Proper Training Is The Best Preventative Maintenance
Make sure that your maintenance and housekeeping staff have undergone comprehensive bed bug training. Alongside a competently scheduled maintenance and inspection protocol, this will enable them to spot signs of an infestation long before it becomes a significant problem for the rest of your guests.
Bed Bugs Are All Hype, Right?
This is one of the most misleading things I have ever heard. Far from being some masonic conspiracy, bed bugs are a serious problem that must be treated as such. To make matters worse, it seems the problem is on the rise throughout the nation. According to pest management agencies in several states, most of their schedule consists of dealing with bed bug infestations.
Bed Bugs May Initially Come From Your Guests
Bed bugs can infest just about anywhere. Whether the location is a vacation home, apartment building, or even a mansion in Beverly Hills, bed bug infestations are not limited to a particular area or style of living. To this extent, just because a guest contracted bed bugs in your hotel room does not mean they originated from nowhere. In fact, they could have spread from the previous occupant or the occupant of any nearby room.
Bed bugs are akin to hitchhikers in that they use people to change locations. Consequently, it is relatively easy for your staff or occupants to transport them to other rooms, floors, or buildings. Again, this is why it is crucial to establish a comprehensive training protocol to root out problems before they begin.
Don’t Wait For Your Guests To Alert You
As a professional, there’s nothing worse than being put in a work-related situation where the element of surprise is not on your side. If you are not proactively inspecting your rooms there is a chance that your guests could find the bed bugs before you do, which puts you and your employees in an awkward situation. Even worse, you guests may not alert you at all. Rather, they will take their complaints to social media and potentially damage your reputation.
Don’t “Starve” The Bugs
Did you know that bed bugs can go without eating for weeks at a time? This is precisely why quarantining a room will have little impact on their presence. Instead, it is best to have the room treated by a professional to ensure that the problem will not return. And speaking of treatment…
You Can Probably Save Your Mattresses
Just because your mattress has bed bugs does not mean you have to throw it away. While the thought of keeping it might seem repellant, it is possible to have it vacuumed, treated, and optimized for defense against future infestations.
ESS Universal manufactures and supplies high-quality, cost-effective commercial grade furniture products. View our entire line of furniture products including our popular waterproof foam mattress for institutional use, single metal bed frames, single over single bunk beds, single over double bunk beds, and triple bunk beds.
