How Do You Inspect a Guest Bed for Bed Bugs?

Why a Guest Bed Is the Difficult One

In an occupied bedroom, bites prompt somebody to look. A guest room has no such alarm. Evidence accumulates in the seams regardless of whether anybody is there, and the room is cleaned rather than searched — cleaning does not look inside a seam.

Add to that the fact that guests who are bitten frequently say nothing, because saying it is awkward, and a guest room can carry a population for a long time with nothing at all to show for it.

The Changeover Routine: Two Minutes

Done at the moment the bed is stripped after a guest leaves, which is the only moment in the year when the mattress is already bare and you are already standing there.

1. Piping at the head end, top face. Torch at a low angle, working along it. Twenty seconds
2. Piping at the head end, underside. Lift the corner. Twenty seconds
3. The top of the divan or the frame under the mattress corners. Twenty seconds
4. Behind the headboard, down the gap, if there is one. Twenty seconds
5. The luggage stand or wherever cases get put down. Twenty seconds

That is the routine. It is not a full inspection and it is not meant to be — it is the five places that would show something first, checked at the one moment they are all exposed.

The Longer Version, Twice a Year

Worth ten minutes on a room that is used occasionally.

• The full mattress, both faces, piping and seams and under the labels
• Divan drawers out and turned over, and the empty recesses behind them
• Frame joints, bolt recesses and slat housings
• The headboard off the wall, and the wall behind it
• Bedside furniture, drawers out
• The skirting and carpet edge along the head wall
• Any upholstered chair kept in the room

Making It Easier Next Time

Two things reduce a ten-minute check to a glance, permanently.

• A bed bug proof encasement on the mattress and, where available, the base. Fully zipped, sealing the piping and seams completely. Future checks become a look at a smooth surface
• A headboard that comes off easily, or none at all. A wall-fixed padded headboard is the single most awkward thing to check in a guest room

Henley: If a Guest Mentions Bites

Treat it as information rather than as a complaint about the house. It has almost certainly been difficult for them to say, and it deserves a proper look rather than a change of sheets.

Then write it down. The room, the date, what was said and what was found. For any property that takes guests regularly that record is the difference between a recurrence being a mystery and being a pattern — and it costs nothing at the time.