How to find out whether that hotel is full of bed bugs before you travel

By AnneHart

 

If you're traveling this holiday season, you should know that many hotels in California are full of bed bugs. Sometimes you can't see the bugs and they get into your luggage, clothing, or crevices of your shoes or other garments. Just putting a purse on the bed invites bed bugs to enter. These bugs are so small they hide in the electrical switch crevices between the wall and the switch. So before you register, check the Bed Bug Registry to see which hotels have passed the bed bug inspection recently.
See the website, Bed Bug Registry. This site shows the hotels that have bedbugs and those that don't at the time of inspection. For other cities and states, go to the Bed bug Registry--National. Just put in the city and state, and you'll get a report on which hotels passed the inspection. For example, if you're going to San Francisco, check out the Sheraton hotel at the wharf has had no bed bug reports or complaints. This is one of my favorite hotels, and it is exceptionally clean and comfortable.
In 2010, a bedbug-detecting dog named Barney signaled which container had live bed bugs during a demonstration at the Bed Bug University North American Summit 2010 on September 22, 2010 in Rosemont, Illinois. The two-day conference of bed bug experts and pest control workers featured seminars from researchers and vendors displaying the latest products focused on bedbug detection, elimination and prevention. Do you need to travel with a bed-bug detection dog? Need to buy a bed bug detection dog? See the site, Bed Bug Detection Dogs.
So, check out any city and state by looking up the name of the hotel, and you'll get a report or a message that there have never been any complaints about bed bugs. Before you travel, check out the Bed bug registry. Holiday time so many people travel, the last thing you want is to take home bed bugs in your luggage or clothing.
Also carry with you a portable or pocket-sized carbon monoxide detection device. You can buy a tiny one to bring with you to any hotel to make sure that carbon monoxide is not seeping into your room from a closed store in a neighboring building. Or you can be sure the heater in the room works well without carbon monoxide fumes. See a few of these pocket-sized or portable CO detectors at Amazon.com. Safety first.