Hospitality guide
The four pests that most annoy hotel guests, bed bugs, cockroaches, fleas, and flies, and how to keep them out.
An encounter with a pest in a hotel can ruin a guest's stay and result in negative comments on social media, seriously affecting business. An infestation can also result in authorities taking legal action to ensure public safety, especially if kitchens, restaurants, and bars are affected. Pests can enter any class of hotel, and some are brought in by the guests themselves, so every hotel needs effective procedures for preventing, monitoring, and controlling them. The five most common pests guests encounter are bed bugs, cockroaches, fleas, and flies.
Bed bugs are the most difficult pest to prevent from entering a hotel because they are mainly brought onto the premises by guests themselves, and even the best hotels can suffer from an infestation. Bed bugs can survive for several months without feeding, so they can easily be carried from hotel to hotel in luggage over several trips.
No guest wants to return from a hotel with a set of irritating bites, a lingering reminder of a bad experience that is far more likely to lead to a complaint on social media. The key to preventing bed bugs is to identify the problem as early as possible and take steps to eliminate them.
Bed bugs are attracted to a host by warmth, carbon dioxide, and body chemicals. They are mainly nocturnal feeders and need only 5–10 minutes of undisturbed feeding to be full. With an adequate supply of blood, a female bed bug can lay 200–500 eggs per month, and the young mature into adults over about 5 weeks, leading to a rapid increase in population if not checked.
An effective prevention strategy requires inspection, identification, and quantification; implementing control measures; and monitoring their effectiveness. The best strategy is to prevent an infestation from taking hold:
Lady Killers Pest Control specializes in bed bug control for hospitality properties. We work closely with your team to inspect, confirm the scope of an infestation, and treat it discreetly, reaching the cracks, crevices, and structural areas where bed bugs hide. We keep you informed throughout the process and focus on minimizing the potential for re-infestation.
Cockroaches infest places with readily available food sources, kitchens, restaurants, bars, and washrooms. They are primarily nocturnal, sheltering in small dark places in furniture, equipment, food packaging, cracks and crevices, and along pipework and drains. Apart from the negative reaction guests have on encountering them, cockroaches are a health hazard: they feed on contaminated matter, contaminate their environment, carry pathogenic microorganisms such as Salmonella and E. coli, and produce allergens from their droppings and shed skins.
Cockroaches can feed on almost anything organic, so good sanitation is the key to prevention:
Lady Killers technicians use safe, targeted treatments that are non-toxic to humans and pets, apply expert knowledge to select the most appropriate treatment, provide professional prevention advice, and offer long-term support with follow-up visits until the problem is fully resolved.
Fleas are a major annoyance to hotel guests because of their irritating bites, and unlike bed bugs they are a potential health risk, carrying bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Hotel guests are a major source of fleas, as are pet dogs and cats and pest animals such as birds and rats nesting on or in the building. Fleas lay their eggs on an animal’s hair, human clothing, or in the host’s sleeping area; the eggs hatch into larvae in 2–14 days.
A number of fly species attracted to food products are pests in hotels, house flies, fruit flies, drain flies, and blow flies are drawn to food odors from kitchens and preparation areas. House flies are a health hazard from their habit of feeding and breeding on animal feces, garbage, and rotting food, and can carry E. coli, Campylobacter, and parasitic worms. Fruit flies are attracted to fermenting and sugary liquids and contaminate food wherever they feed.
The most important way to control flies is by using standard food hygiene practices to deny them access to food sources:
More hospitality guides
Talk to a certified local team about a discreet, IPM-based program built around your operation.