Do you feel comfortable sleeping on filthy hotel beds?

[Dancing Fire]

I don't... ..maybe it is a "mind clean" thing...

One reason I don't travel often b/c I can't get a good night's sleep on hotel beds.

 

[kenny]

I hear sheets must be laundered between guests but not blankets or bedspreads , but if you ask for an extra blanket or spread it must be freshly laundered.

Bed bugs are free.

 

[arkieb1]

The stains in the top coverlet things is really really gross, if you really want to gross yourself out buy one of those lights that picks up body fluid stains, it won't just demonstrate a dirty bed cover it will show off exceedingly grotty walls, carpet stains etc including in flash hotels..... - then you will never want to stay anywhere else again..... In most countries they do wash the sheets.

In case you are wondering about the light thing, apart from travelling a lot, I used to work as a mystery shopper, patron (so pubs, clubs and bars) diner (restaurants) and guest (staying in hotel rooms). I literally got paid to shop, paid to drink, paid to eat out and paid to stay somewhere else and assess/write a report what that was it like.

 

[anne_h]

Yes, I'm comfortable. Except for bed bugs.

I had a very bad experience in a hotel room in New York city once and have been... on high alert ever since then. I've mastered the art of bed bug inspection as well as adopted habits to avoid unknowingly bring any home.

About 1-2% of rooms I've checked showed signs of bed bug activity. Whenever I find anything remotely suspicious, I ask for a new room and check it again.

Anne

 

[ckrickett]

Oh
Hell
NO!


if I go someplace and I even think the sheets aren't washed properly I will ask for new ones. It's one of the things I am super picky about. But I aggressively wash my sheets like every 2-3 days so I guess I'm just an odd duck that way.

 

[ckrickett]

The stains in the top coverlet things is really really gross, if you really want to gross yourself out buy one of those lights that picks up body fluid stains, it won't just demonstrate a dirty bed cover it will show off exceedingly grotty walls, carpet stains etc including in flash hotels..... - then you will never want to stay anywhere else again..... In most countries they do wash the sheets.

In case you are wondering about the light thing, apart from travelling a lot, I used to work as a mystery shopper, patron (so pubs, clubs and bars) diner (restaurants) and guest (staying in hotel rooms). I literally got paid to shop, paid to drink, paid to eat out and paid to stay somewhere else and assess/write a report what that was it like.

I was looking into doing this but when I was investigating it all the sites seemed super scummy. Any tips?

 

[MichelleCarmen]

No, yuck. Recently I didn't want to camp in the rain, so we checked into a hotel and the bed smelled of perfume from the previous guest and it made me wish we had braved the thunderstorm!

 

[mary poppins]

The television remote control is the filthiest item in a hotel room. Some people don't wash hands after using the bathroom, and then use the remote control. Yuck! If I use the remote, I wrap a tissue around it first.

Here's the link to the bedbug registry. In the US, the northeast is the most infested area.
http://bedbugregistry.com/

 

[monarch64]

I am not. That's why the hotel bar and mini bars exist, though. I have been known to bring plastic garbage bags, transfer my belongings directly to those to hang, and wash everything in hot water upon my return home. I've become very paranoid about bed bugs. The rest I am hopeful my immune system will take care of.

 

[Dancing Fire]

The stains in the top coverlet things is really really gross, if you really want to gross yourself out buy one of those lights that picks up body fluid stains, it won't just demonstrate a dirty bed cover it will show off exceedingly grotty walls, carpet stains etc including in flash hotels..... - then you will never want to stay anywhere else again..... In most countries they do wash the sheets.

Flash this light on the bed sheets and cover...

http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Light-UV-Blacklight-Flashlight/dp/B004S6JFWQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1402980454&sr=1-1&keywords=uv+flash+light

 

[Gypsy]

I am wary of hotel rooms.

Bedbugs are my biggest fear and I search the rooms I am given carefully and I do not put my suitcases on the floor or on the bed.

As for sheets and blankets. Well, I make sure I stay at nice places. When I was younger I stayed in cheap accommodations and GOODNESS some of them were funky. I can't and won't do that anymore. If I can't stay somewhere nice, I don't go. I check the sheets on my beds when I get into the room.

I firmly believe in staying in the nicest accommodations I can afford and I research my hotels carefully on travel sites and make sure that I don't stay at places where people have complained about cleanliness in the past.

 

[ericad]

Problem solved!

http://products.skymall.com/bed_bug_sleeping_cocoon_107796781.php

 

[monarch64]

Problem solved!

http://products.skymall.com/bed_bug_sleeping_cocoon_107796781.php

Great idea! Bon idee! Unfortunately looks like this is no longer available! You had me at "problem solved!"

I guess I could sleep in full body tights?

 

[Sky56]

We're using our RV more, no bedbugs there.

 

[dk168]

The last time I used a budget hotel in France for leisure purposes, it was a chain of hotels that is one up on non en-suite hotels, with sealed cork tiles as floor covering, and a boxy shower/toilet combo; I made the mistake to pull the bedsheet off the bed and I saw the state of the mattress, and I never stayed with that chain of hotel again.

My budget hotel of choice when on holiday is the next level up with better beds and en-suite facilities, and proper carpet on the floor!

From time to time, I may treat myself to a better hotel. However, it is against my travelling principles to spend money on luxury hotel rooms, as I would rather save the money and spend it on food and drink instead.

DK

 

[kathley]

I don't... ..maybe it is a "mind clean" thing...

One reason I don't travel often b/c I can't get a good night's sleep on hotel beds.

+1 Also, I never use the pillows and will use rolled freshly washed bath towels instead.

 

[partgypsy]

I'm not picky but I am a bit paranoid about the bed bug issue. My husband and I were tenatively talking about a NYC trip, when all the cheaper places I reviewed, I would find reports of bedbugs in the reviews! So we ended up going somewhere else (Charleston). And the last couple times I traveled, I did look for bedbugs (but didn't see any).

But in general no I don't have any issues staying in hotels, for me it is a treat.

 

[JewelFreak]

I don't stay where the beds are filthy. Even slightly dirty. No thanks. Ick forever. Did that as a teenager -- no more!

 

[rosetta]

I rarely stay in a hotel that costs less than $500 a night but even then I like to inspect beds carefully to make sure of cleanliness before accepting a room. Just because it's high end doesn't always mean it's clean!

 

[ming]

I am a road warrior so if I worried about what may be lurking in a hotel room I'd be totally screwed. I don't stay in the $29/night places but have stayed in lots in the $125 price point and they are generally fine. As someone said, the most disgusting things are the remote control, door knobs, light switches, phone, desktop.... If I have an antiseptic wipe I wipe all those down. If I don't I just don't worry about it.

Did anyone read about the futility of toilet seat covers today: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/17/toilet-seat-liners-covers-pointless-bacteria-germs_n_5500416.html


I don't care what you do but please ladies, wipe up after yourself in public restrooms! I use far too many of them and I will shame you if I walk in behind you and you left it disgusting!

 

[pregcurious]

No, but I'm usually tired enough that I fall asleep.

 

[justginger]

26 (?) countries in 10 years, many as a backpacker staying in hostels, and no bed bug or other gross experiences yet. Staying over at a frat house in college was more unsanitary than the $6 hostel I slept in, in Bangkok.

Edit: it never even occurred to me to check for bedbugs. Are they common? Have I just been beyond lucky so far?

 

[missy]

26 (?) countries in 10 years, many as a backpacker staying in hostels, and no bed bug or other gross experiences yet. Staying over at a frat house in college was more unsanitary than the $6 hostel I slept in, in Bangkok.

Edit: it never even occurred to me to check for bedbugs. Are they common? Have I just been beyond lucky so far?

I don't know how prevalent they are but they are all around and more common in the summer. Here's a few links fyi.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0513_040513_bedbugs.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_bed_bugs

http://www.pestworld.org/all-things-bed-bugs/history-of-bed-bugs/bed-bug-facts-statistics/

To answer DF's question No, I am not comfortable sleeping anywhere less than immaculate. Happily I don't travel much these days (except back and forth to the beach house) and that's the way I like it. In the past I traveled extensively abroad and enjoyed it very much. That was before all this bedbug hoopla and given that I am a big scaredy cat when it comes to bugs I am glad I didn't have that concern on my radar in the 80's and 90's and early 2000's regardless of whether it existed as a real concern or not in those days. Ignorance was bliss and thankfully I never had any issues when it came to this topic.

However now it is a different world and it is a real concern for anyone. Not just travelers. 2 different friends had bedbug infestations in their homes in the last 5 years. One bed bug outbreak I know of was in a chic upper west side coop and another infestation was in a friend's home who lives in England . And listening to their horror stories of doing what was necessary to eradicate their homes from the bedbugs is indeed the stuff of scary stories IMO.

 

[chrono]

I avoid this by not staying at hotels with filthy beds. I am under no illusion that even higher end hotels have issues but at least it is less obvious and I refrain from using the usual suspects (TV remote, blankets, etc).

 

[Farleysmom]

The thought of bed bugs makes my skin crawl (no pun intended). For that reason, I always travel with bounce dryer sheets. I put a sheet under the four corners of the mattress and in my suitcase. All of my clothes are packed in packing cubes so the clothes do not come in contact with the drawers and I put a bounce sheet in each packing cube. Bugs do not like the smell of the bounce sheets and stay away and you clothes smell nice and fresh.

 

[Sparklelu]

http://bedbugregistry.com/
before you travel use this to check out your hotel.
FYI
The Ritz Carlton in NYC had bedbugs in 2012, those rooms start at $450.00!
My Dh travels frequently for work. He travels with Young Living Thieves oil in a small spray bottle, he sprays the remote and light switches as well as the phone headset.
If there are drawer pulls he gets them too, but he hardly ever unpacks.
he has been known to call down for new linen if he thinks its suspect. The comforter is never usd and he travels with his own pillows.

 

[ckrickett]

For the longest time I travelled with extra sheets, pillows, and pillowcases.

I went to a hotel for work once and there was blood stains on the pillows, I about DIED!!! Thankfully the Hotel staff was VERY accommodating and did everything minus give me the hotel itself to make up for it.But that was one of my biggest freak outs with hotel linen situations.

I;ve been lucky to never have to deal with bedbugs, but if that were ever a problem I don;t know how I would handle it, I'd probably turn into some paranoid mad woman.

 

[OECsareforLovers]

It super grosses me out and I travel semi-often for work. The worst experience thus far was after traveling a million hours to get to Bangkok and getting to our hotel airport in the middle of the night I pulled back the sheets to find ants, lots of ants.

 

[Indylady]

I make an effort to stay at nice hotels or hotels that will at least have good customer service if something is wrong.

 

[missy]

http://bedbugregistry.com/
before you travel use this to check out your hotel.
FYI
The Ritz Carlton in NYC had bedbugs in 2012, those rooms start at $450.00!
My Dh travels frequently for work. He travels with Young Living Thieves oil in a small spray bottle, he sprays the remote and light switches as well as the phone headset.
If there are drawer pulls he gets them too, but he hardly ever unpacks.
he has been known to call down for new linen if he thinks its suspect. The comforter is never usd and he travels with his own pillows.

It's interesting how many people equate expensive with less likely to have bedbugs. I don't know the statistics regarding this but I will say the 2 people I know who had a bedbug infestation of their homes were in a high socioeconomic class. Bedbugs don't discriminate and I wouldn't let an expensive hotel room give me a false sense of security. I am glad to see PSers do their due diligence though and inspect their hotel rooms as well as research where they are booking before they take the trip. Wishing everyone bed bug free travels.