Bed Bugs in Guest Rooms: A Henley-on-Thames Guide

The First Hour

1. Thank them and take it seriously. Whatever it turns out to be, the guest has done something awkward and the response sets everything that follows
2. Move them to another room in a different part of the building if you can, or offer to help them find somewhere else
3. Do not put them next door — if the room has a problem, the adjoining one is a question
4. Block the room immediately, before you have looked at it
5. Then go and look, properly and with a torch
6. Write down the date, the room, what they said and what you found

What To Say To the Guest

• That you are taking it seriously and looking now. True and immediate
• That you are moving them, and where
• What you find, either way. Coming back to somebody with an honest answer is worth more than the answer being good
• Not that it is impossible, that the room is cleaned daily, or that nobody has ever complained. All three are heard as a denial
• Not a diagnosis of their skin. Bites vary enormously between people and plenty of things are not bites at all — that is a question for a pharmacist or GP, not for a host

The refund or the goodwill gesture is a commercial decision and not a pest control one. What is worth knowing is that it lands very differently before an inspection than after one.

Then Look Properly

Not a glance. If you are going to block a room and possibly refund a night, it is worth twenty minutes.

1. Strip the bed and work the mattress piping at the head end, both faces
2. Lift the mattress and check the top of the base or frame
3. Take out any divan drawers and turn them over
4. Look behind the headboard, and take it off the wall if it comes off
5. Check the luggage rack, the chair and the bedside furniture
6. Check the skirting on the bed wall
7. Photograph anything you find, in place

Finding nothing does not clear the room. An early infestation leaves very little, and a guest who reacted is a genuine signal.

The Reputational Part

Two things matter and neither of them is whether it happened.

• How fast you responded. A guest who was moved within the hour and told the truth the next day writes a different review from one who was told it was impossible
• Whether you can show what you did. Dates, findings, which rooms were inspected, which were treated. That record is what a platform, an insurer or a future guest is actually asking about

Bed bugs are carried in. Every property that takes guests is exposed to it, and it is not a verdict on the housekeeping. What distinguishes properties is entirely the response.

Henley: Other Recent Guests

The awkward one, and the right thing to do. If you find something and other people have stayed in that room recently, a short message is worth sending — they may have taken it home, and twenty minutes of dealing with a case is the difference between nothing and a treatment.

It is a difficult message to write and an easy one to receive. Most people are relieved to be told, and it converts a problem into evidence that you handle things properly.