The bedbug battle isn’t at the hotel, it’s at home

“Put your luggage in the tub at the hotel.” Terrible advice and a false sense of security. Where do you put your bag while bathing? What about your shoes? What about hotels with floor drain showers? Things from your bag will make it into various parts of the room anyhow. Unless you re-pack every night, and that’s silly.

A better hotel-focused answer is to always use the luggage rack when at the hotel, however, what bloggers neglect to say is – what you do when you get home is more important than the hotel. Just assume you might be carrying bedbugs home and always follow these points:

(1) Your goal is to keep them away from where you sleep – they need your blood to live at home, don’t put them in range. It just takes a simple lifestyle change of what you do when you get home from a trip.

(2) Your luggage does not come anywhere near your bed – ever, for even a second, it is kept, unopened far way until you are ready to do all your laundry.

(3) Clothes go directly into the washer and dryer. Don’t mix batches or use the bedroom as a staging area. Non-clothing items you travel with do not belong in the bedroom – my power bank, Bose headphones and laptop are not kept in my bedroom. Those mini bottles of shampoo, etc. – do not keep them, bedbugs lay eggs you cannot see.

(4) Empty luggage is permanently stored in the garage or a far distance from the bedroom after you unpack. Bedbugs can live for several weeks, so no you really have no choice.