To take the damn luggage out of the tub before turning on the shower. I guess the writer needed one more paragraph to finish the story.

sleep in the tub with your suitcase

dun dun duuuuuun!!!

I has bed bugs in my hotel in 2005 and changed rooms 4 times in 2 weeks. By the third room I realized they came out no matter what I did (lights on 24/7, etc) so I figured that if they are in my clothes and they crawled out of my luggage they wouldn't be able to crawl far on a slippery porcelain surface. I had about 175 bites all over my face and body and they wouldn't let me on a plane since I looked like a leper.

The bed bugs came from the neighboring townhouse. They cleaned their carpets to rid themselves of bed bugs that their homeless daughter's mattress brought in, and the creatures crawled through the walls to our side. Thankfully, we got rid of them. At first we thought it was mosquito bites, then one day I looked around the back of the bed and saw bed bugs scrambling out of site. The next several hours were a stressful battle to get rid of them. It was horrible.

Ever since, I always lift the sheets and check the mattress back and front in hotels (which believe me, is no pleasure to look at even in high priced places—some of their mattresses are soooo old); we never leave our luggage on the bed, chairs, etc; and when we get home, the suitcases never leave the garage and all clothes get washed before coming back inside.

It sucks, but believe me...bed bugs are a horror—anxiety at bed time.

And getting rid of all the beds entirely and replacing them. Even slept in the living room for a couple months (which is far from the bedrooms) in order to not introduce the new bed (with bug-proof coverings on the springs, mattress, and pillows) to the rooms where the bugs had been.

You got off WAY easy

Pretty sure we got them from the maid service we had in ...

I used the (had no choice) Raid Bedbug spray at first, and then got bed bug covers for both mattress and box.
That seemed to stop it. But between the time I took care of it (a week or so), I didn't sleep well. Kept hearing my wife scratching herself during the night—and it was bed bugs. I saw the trails of blood on the sheets. "Crap!"
I think the ultimate end was covering the mattresses. I also put the feet of the beds in jars, and covered them with Vaseline, and taped over all outlets near the bed—because they were coming from the neighbor's unit.
Even then, I felt uncomfortable sleeping, knowing they were underneath the bedbug covers. I didn't want to but a new mattress until I was sure there were no more.
But yeah, we're lucky it didn't spread throughout the house.

The message is that ALL hotel rooms have bedbugs. You can't possibly do anything about it, other than put your luggage in the hotel bathtub.

Am I the only person that thinks this is genuinely sad and distressing?

if you're sleeping in the bed where the bed bugs could have jumped into your suitcases, aren't they climbing on to your body while you sleep in that very bed at night - an even cozier place to actually feast (on your blood) than your luggage?

This makes no sense to me. Someone please explain to me where my logic has failed here.

And you take them home.

I would be curious if this would actually help or if this is just someones idea that "makes sense" but isn't accurate.

Suitcases usually have too many nooks for hiding.

A friend who travels regularly swears by this. She puts her suitcase in the tub then strips the bed to check for them. She's very careful because she had a severe reaction once that included an overnight observation in the hospital. She's only found them one other time. She was given a new room and she immediately changed her clothes, putting them in a trash bag and then checked the new room nude. She showered, dressed and took the clothes immediately down to a washing machine.

The more you do to prevent it, the greater your chances are. And if you really want to eliminate the chance of them hitching a ride on your clothes, keep some recently washed clothes in a sealed plastic bag. Walk out of the hotel room, immediately go to a laundromat or any place where there's a dryer, find a place to change into said clothes in sealed bag, and immediately put the clothes you left the hotel room in in the dryer. They say 15 minutes should be enough to kill any bed bugs, so do a half hour to be sure.

I survived a bed bug infestation in my house. Eventually had to fumigate it to get rid of them for good. But this was my trick for whenever I left or went to anybody's house. I ran my clothes through the dryer, put them on, and immediately left. It worked.

Plus, I think storing all your things in the germ-infested bathroom where they can get ruined by all the steam sounds stupid.

Everywhere in a hotel room is germ-infested. Bathrooms are at least specifically designed to not provide surfaces hospitable to most germs. And it's also not hospitable to bedbugs, who like hidey places, preferably in fabric or perhaps wood. Plus they live near where the food is ... the bed.

And if you strip naked the minute you walk into a hotel room, also fine. Those kinds of trips are fun Otherise, it makes no sense.

But the WORST things you can do are:
1) Putting your suitcase and/or clothes on the bed, and
2) Putting your bedclothes straight back into your suitcase.

Bedclothes should be kept in separate, sealed plastic bed once you've slept in them once, and brought home that way as well.

It's all about reducing the odds, you see.

If bed bugs are truly so insidious that they require clothes to be hermetically sealed for days and suitcases to be quarantined in a separate building, then the only real prevention is not going where the bedbugs are. Putting your suitcase in the bathtub won't help if you have to wear clothes in the room because if they're there, those bugs will be coming home with you. It might be better to check for signs of the bugs and move to another room/hotel if you spot them.

Any clothes that get near the bed, don't put them back in suitcase unless in plastic bags.

Honestly though the most important things you can do are more likely the things you do when you get home ... like washing all the clothes immediately, and then quarantine your bag(s), preferably in plastic bags, and definitely out in the garage or attic or the like.

and then crawl back into the seams of the mattress or blankets. They actually leave streaks of blood after they bite. So if you look at the sides of the mattress and see blood or black marks, there are probably bb's.
If you put luggage on the bed, you're taking a chance that they will come out of the blanket and crawl into your luggage.
I read one article that called it accidental infestation—because they don't actually try to hitch hike into new luggage or clothes, it's just an unlucky situation on the travelers' part.

They aren't sold as much these days, (I believe)

I have hard plastic luggage which I think would block out bed bugs when it is closed.

But I'm going to start putting them in the bathroom as you suggest.

Totally hitch a ride...

Guess I’ve been lucky. Never met a bedbug.

Wouldn’t put my luggage on the bed anyway, but having to lift it in and out of the tub every day?

Not as much as some people, but I tend to average one hotel night per week by the end of a year. My husband's travel used to average a a week of hotel nights each month. Knock wood, neither of us has met a bedbug either.

A person doesn’t wash the clothes they wear every day, so if you were getting bedbugs in your bed, they’d be on your clothes from the previous day and the day after...and so on. Makes no sense.

But then I'll admit I didn't read the entire article. I have enough "ew" in my day already.

I've never seen a bedbug, but we don't stay in hotel rooms very often.

It gets brutally cold in the cargo hold of planes.

I actually worry more about getting sick from eating in food places on the road than I do about getting bed bugs or the local skin parasite.

I should worry about food more, but getting to indulge in whatever's sold on the street is one of the better things about not being home.

But I stayed in a dive motel once that definitely had them. The management denied it when we confronted them on it in the morning. Then we checked Yelp and noticed that many people had made the same complaint, and had even posted pictures of them. Check Yelp before staying in any hotels or motels. If they have a bed bug problem, odds are somebody noticed it before you and posted to Yelp about it.

Including youth hostels in Europe, cheap rooms in Key West, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, DC, Maryland, NY...I’ve seen some bugs of other sorts, but not a bedbug, not a one.

I don’t generally stay in the same type places anymore, but certainly have been in Motel 6, Best Western etc over the last 10 years. Nary a problem.

Still never met a bed bug.

I don’t get this advice. Does one not take a bath or shower the whole time one is in the room? Or just move the suitcase in and out of the tub as one is doing so? What does the savvy (bug-terrified) traveler do with the clothes they were just wearing? Shower with them on? Immediately thrown them into bags?

This is silliness.

10-15 years ago. So if you stayed in hotels/motels before that, you would likely not have had a problem.

There ultimately is no safe place from bed bugs. But since they like to live in soft places like mattresses, blankets, clothing, or carpets, they are less likely to travel into a bathroom, hence the advice to store your suitcase there. However, less likely does not mean totally safe, as you point out. It just means your chances of avoiding contamination are improved.

And yes, if you really are worried, immediately throwing your clothes into a bag when done wearing with them is actually a good idea. It may seem strange to you, but that's because you've never experienced an infestation. I have. And believe me, you won't find it so strange when you have. Bed Bugs are an absolute nightmare.

If anything, I’ve traveled more in the last 10 years than in my younger years due to more disposable income, not to mention a part-time job for a few years with an airline - I was everywhere.

I don’t know a single soul who has ever dealt with this issue. Just lucky I guess.

But they have had a dramatic resurgence in the last 10-15 years, mainly because we stopped using DDT. And yes, consider yourself lucky that you haven't seen a bedbug. If they get in your home, be prepared for all out war and to spend many thousands of dollars to get rid of them.

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/return-bed-bug

In my case I got an awful infection around the ankles. It nearly ruined my Christmas a couple years ago. I was staying at a really nice hotel in Spain, and the room looked as clean as could be.

He doesn't even travel very much but managed to get them in his house. It was awful! Ended up getting rid of a bunch of stuff but took a lot of work to get rid of them.

I've never seen them or experienced them and I've stayed in all kinds of hotels, motels, B&Bs, etc. I guess I'm lucky like the other two people in this thread. Once, I was forced to stay in a terrible hotel and thought for sure that would be the time for bedbugs but still didn't get them.

Unfortunately, the first place my suitcase goes is on the bed or beside the bed.

I really wonder whether bedbugs can survive in the luggage compartment of a plane. My luggage is always cold when I take it from the carousel. The only bag that I take in the plane cabin with me is my computer and documents bag.

Except for shoes. I hang stuff from the shower rod, and carefully hook them over the bathroom door when I take a shower.

I also loved my hard shell spinner, and the only fabric on its outside is the zipper area.

I read that legally they have to tell you. I’m not sure how helpful that info might be, but I suppose some folks would rather stay in a motel/hotel where bb haven’t been a previous problem.

I stayed in a motel one time that definitely had them, and management flat out lied about it. We then checked Yelp and saw that many people had made the same complaint about that motel, and even posted pictures of the bed bugs in the beds. No way management didn't know about it.

Air BnB, planes, etc... but I tend to over worry. Sometimes I wrap my luggage in plastic for a few days when I get home. Luckily, it doesn't seem to be an issue if you use hotels with at least 3.5 to 4 stars. Lol.

If you want to be paranoid, remove your clothes from your bags in the garage, take in and immediately wash them (and check the ones you're wearing carefully). Then put the bag in a plastic bag for at least 1 month. BB's can typically live over a month without food.

room and there is no carpet. I liked that.

People need to realize that those cleaning crews are pretty quick. As we stow our stuff in the overhead bins and under the seats it is easy to pick up a bug hitch-hiker, and then there is the problem of the seats with all the nooks and crannies.

Bedbugs can actually be in a person's clothing hiding in seams. It is hard to not worry about that when jammed next to people.
Best thing to do is strip down when you return home, leave everything outside and process all the clothing by laundering (even if it was never worn) and leaving suitcases open to the sunlight before putting them away.

I can't be sure exactly but I believe they jumped on my luggage when I took a short 3 day trip to New York City. I stayed at the Marriott in the Financial District. Wasn't really aware of the whole BB thing back then, so I used to take my clothes out of the suit case an put them in the drawers. I NEVER to that any more! I tried and tried to get rid of those things...but the only real solution was to finally move!

Now-a-days I take a large plastic trash bag with me and I place my luggage in the bag and seal it up. Only open it to get what I need out, then it gets sealed up again....and yes, I keep it in the bathroom now.

Book the earliest possible AM appointment so the maids haven't been at someone else's house before you

Still not a sure thing, but I'm almost positive mine came from house cleaners who told me we were their 3rd job that day, and they were late cause the other two places were very dirty.

Never again ... lol ...

I even switched Drs because of the nasty people and upholstered furniture. We only go to theaters with leather or vinyl seats and we wipe them down before we sit. Call me paranoid if you like, or blame it on working in the OR 30 years. I'm a clean freak.

I'm not a germophobe but I like things to at least appear to be clean. When I sat down, I noticed sauce or something on the tray and arm rest. There were greasy prints on the back of the seat in front of me. I wasn't going to touch that but I didn't want to put my arms down or have my food put onto a dirty pullout tray. I mentioned this to the waiter and he said he'd take care of it.

A few minutes later, a different person came out and made a big production. She unwrapped a cleaning wipe from a pouch and wiped the surfaces and then asked me to inspect it.

I'm thinking your idea might be better!

Apparently, I'm pretty freakin' allergic, which is a good thing (according to my doctor). It means I'll always know if I end up bringing them home. Cold comfort when you're swollen, itchy wreck. The flight and drive home were not fun, as I was essentially in a benadryl coma. A couple days of steroids and I was fine. Threw out my suitcase, washed EVERYTHING in the hottest water I could find. My friend, who's a biologist, joked that next time I should bring my stuff to her lab and put it in the blast freezer for a couple days.
I put my bags either in the shower or on the bathroom counter, or failing that (in small hotel rooms), on the very top shelf of the closet.
Ick, just writing this makes me itchy as hell.

The drying is the part that gets 'em. Leave stuff in the dryer an extra 20 mins on high even after they're dry.

Trippy, I have absolutely no reaction to their bites at all. No itching, welts, nothing.

Plus extra drying as you mentioned.
Dude, it seriously sucks. Imagine your worst mosquito bites magnified by 100.

...put them outside when you get home. We have found roaches in them from the store.

Brought all my clothes, one load at a time, in and washed what could be washed, put what couldn't in the dryer and ran it on high for 30 minutes. I threw out my toiletries and also put the toiletry bags in the dryer. I put a blow dryer inside the suitcase and zipped it up and ran the hairdryer on high for 30 minutes. I never had them in the house....it was a scary few days after I got home.

Two of which stand out.

More world travel. In some modern countries they do not carry the ‘ick’ factor as here.

No longer routinely spraying hotel rooms with pesticides that are now banned. Mainly pyrethrins. They are toxic and carcinogenic.

But there is some things you can do that is very effective. Inspect your room! Pull the top corner of the sheet an mattress cover off the bed and look at the sheet, mattress cover and mattress for little black specks of dried blood. You see that, there are bedbugs. Leave. Don’t change rooms. Housekeeping spreads them.

And you know how so many hotels have the head board attached to the wall creating a seam where the headboard meets the wallpaper? That’s a place they hang out. Always take a flashlight and use it to inspect that seam. Bed bugs are not small like chiggers. They are half the size of a small ladies little finger nail. You will see them. Same on the rounded seams of the mattress. If you don’t see the you have no problem.

As mentioned, heat kills them. I have never seen bedbugs in a room I visit and I do everything I mentioned above. But one gift of living in Florida. If I ever know I got them in a hotel, when returning home I will strip naked in the garage(they don’t live on you). Take those clothes and put them in the truck. Open the luggage and spread out my clothes on the back seat. Leave then there being sure to park in the sun for several days. 140 degrees for 20 minutes kills adults, juveniles and eggs. Every vehicle in Florida gets that hot even in October!

One final thing to remember, bedbugs carry no disease.

And yeah, I have professional knowledge of them. The quality of the hotel is no indication of having bedbugs. Actually, holiday in express with an almost 100% domestic clientele may be less at risk than a high end Hilton with lots of foreign visitors.

Thanx, GC. This is one of the best hints in the thread.

I always check the sides of the mattress, but never thought about the headboards.
Plus, I didn't think about the cleaning crew spreading them from room to room. Damn. That's a tough one.

informative post, bedbugs are not a sign of dirtyness. They aren't roaches. My one experience with the critters is they aren’t that hard to detect because they leave blood around. If they are in light colored sheets you will see the evidence.

Best thing I’ve seen clean them up is diatomaceous earth. You can get the food grade and it isn’t poison to anything. In fact, some people take it as a supplement.