How to Avoid Bringing Bed Bugs Home From a Hotel: Travel Checklist

Bed bugs travel the same way people do: in suitcases, on clothes and in bags set down on hotel beds. In a 2025 survey, 70% of pest professionals said they had treated bed bugs in hotels and motels, yet a Harris Poll the same year found only 28% of Americans check their hotel room. The good news is that a few habits, backed by entomology research rather than travel-blog folklore, block most of the risk. Here's a checklist for before you go, at check-in, during your stay and, most important, when you get home.

How Common Are Bed Bugs in Hotels?

Common enough to plan for. In a 2025 survey by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Florida, 70% of pest professionals said they had treated bed bugs in hotels and motels, behind only single-family homes (89%) and apartments (88%). Star rating doesn't protect you. Bed bugs arrive with guests, not dirt.

Two things work in your favor. University of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter notes that most hotel infestations are limited, often to just a few rooms. And bed bugs don't jump or fly onto people. They hide near the bed and come out at night, so where you put your bags and clothes matters more than anything else.

Timing matters too. A Penn Medicine study of four years of bed bug reports in Philadelphia found they peaked in August and bottomed out in February. Summer trips carry the most risk, but travel at any time of year can bring them home.

Before You Go

• Pack a small flashlight, or plan to use your phone's. Hotel lighting is too dim to see into mattress seams.
• Bring large zip-top or trash bags. One holds worn clothes during the trip. Others can wrap your suitcase if the room has no rack.
• Packing cubes or zip bags for clothes give an extra barrier. UKY's guidance leaves it to each traveler how far to go, but sealed bags are cheap insurance.
• Luggage type: hard-sided suitcases have fewer seams and fabric folds, and light colors make dark specks easier to see. No study has tested luggage directly. A 2016 University of Florida study did find bed bugs prefer to hide in red and black harborages and avoid yellow and green, but those were test shelters, not suitcases.

At Check-In: The 5-Minute Room Inspection

Do this before you unpack. UKY recommends inspecting "preferably before unpacking," focusing on the head (pillow end) of the bed.

1. Park your bags in the bathroom on the tile, or in the empty tub, while you look. Bed bugs hide near the bed, not in the bathroom.
2. Pull back the sheets at the head of the bed. With a flashlight, work along the mattress seams, piping and tags, then the top of the box spring.
3. Look for: live bugs (reddish-brown, apple-seed sized), pale shed skins, tiny white eggs, and dark ink-like spots of dried droppings, which smear when rubbed with a damp cloth.
4. Check the headboard edges and nightstand with the flashlight. Potter says the area behind the headboard is often the first place bed bugs become established in hotels, but headboards are heavy and often mounted to the wall, so we'd advise against trying to remove one yourself.
5. Check upholstered chairs along seams and under cushions.
6. Check the luggage rack where the straps wrap around the frame before you put anything on it.

A clean inspection lowers the risk but doesn't guarantee a clean room. One traveler on Reddit found a bed bug 45 minutes after checking in, despite having looked at "the corners of the bed and underneath." That's why the habits below matter even when the room looks fine.

If you find bed bugs in your hotel room

• Don't unpack, and move your bags out of the bedroom.
• Take a photo. If you can, trap one on clear tape or in a sealed bag to show the front desk.
• Ask for a room in a different part of the hotel, not next door, above or below. UKY notes infestations can extend to nearby rooms.
• Report it in writing so there's a record.
• Treat everything as exposed when you get home and follow the steps below.

During Your Stay

• Keep luggage off the bed and the floor. UKY recommends a luggage stand, table or other hard surface. A hard surface away from the bed and walls is best.
• Keep your suitcase zipped and unpack only what you need. Use the closet rather than dresser drawers.
• Seal worn clothes in a plastic bag. A 2017 study at the University of Sheffield found bed bugs were significantly more attracted to worn clothing than clean clothing, and concluded that leaving worn clothes exposed while traveling helps bed bugs hitch a ride. An open laundry pile on the floor is exactly what they're looking for.
• Re-check the bed if you wake up with new itchy welts.

When You Get Home: The Step That Matters Most

1. Unpack in the garage, laundry room or entryway, not the bedroom.
2. Put clothes straight into the dryer. Dump them from the suitcase or laundry bag directly into the drum, as one Reddit poster put it, "don't use your hands." Run it on high heat for at least 30 minutes, then wash if needed. In laundry studies, 30 minutes on hot killed every stage in a normal load, while 10 minutes left up to a quarter of the bugs alive. UKY says 10 to 20 minutes on medium-high kills all stages, and dry items heat up faster. Thirty minutes covers fuller loads. Don't overstuff the dryer, or it won't heat through.
3. If you wash first, use hot water. Washing at 140°F for 30 minutes killed all stages. Warm water at 104°F killed only a quarter of the eggs, and a cold soak killed none.
4. Deal with the suitcase. Potter notes that inspecting or vacuuming a suitcase "is less useful since it is difficult to spot bed bugs in luggage." If you had a bad stay, heat-treat it. A closed car in summer sun can work. Otherwise store it sealed in a large bag, away from bedrooms.
5. Shoes, toiletry bags and backpacks that survive heat can go in the dryer too.

Store-bought bed bug sprays won't help here. Bed bugs have become increasingly resistant to the pyrethroids in most store-bought sprays (UKY), and no spray reaches eggs glued deep in a seam.

Did You Bring Them Home? Signs to Watch For

Don't rely on bites. Research led by Klaus Reinhardt found that 18 of 19 people eventually reacted to bed bug bites, but mostly only after repeated exposure, and the first reactions could take about 10 days to appear. Someone bitten for the first time on a trip may not see a mark until well after they're home, or at all.

That delay is what makes a hotel hitchhiker expensive. Under The Independent's YouTube video of a hotel worker showing how to check a room (about 152,000 views), one commenter, with 64 likes, wrote that they brought a bed bug home from a hotel after a concert without knowing it. Six months later they had an infestation: $1,800 spent packing up their belongings, a lot thrown out, and exterminator visits every two weeks for six months. Their advice was to check headboards, drawers, chairs and couches, not just the bed.

• Itchy welts in a line or cluster on skin exposed during sleep
• Rusty or reddish smears on sheets or pillowcases
• Dark spots, pale shed skins or tiny white eggs along mattress seams and the headboard
• Live bugs in the seams of the bed or nearby furniture

For how to tell bites apart from other bugs, see our bed bug bite identification guide.

Travel Tips That Don't Hold Up

• "Blow a hair dryer into your suitcase to flush them out." A popular tip among travelers. A few seconds of warm air won't reach lethal temperatures through the fabric or into seams.
• "Nice hotels don't have them." Bed bugs come in with guests, whatever the price of the room.
• "Spray your suitcase with bug spray." Resistance makes most consumer sprays unreliable, and they don't kill eggs.
• "No bites means no bed bugs." First-time bites can take days to show, if they show at all.

When to Call a Professional

If you find live bugs, eggs or shed skins at home after a trip, act early. A few hitchhikers are far easier to clear than an established infestation, which can double about every two weeks. Our bed bug control service handles inspections and treatment across South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. See why bed bugs are hard to get rid of and how to prepare for treatment. Students heading to campus should also read our dorm bed bug prevention guide.

Sources: M. F. Potter, "Bed Bugs", University of Kentucky Entomology ENTFACT-636 (revised 2026); W. T. Hentley, R. W. Webster, S. E. F. Evison and M. T. Siva-Jothy, "Bed bug aggregation on dirty laundry: a mechanism for passive dispersal", Scientific Reports 7 (2017); K. Reinhardt, D. Kempke, R. A. Naylor and M. T. Siva-Jothy, "Sensitivity to bites by the bedbug, Cimex lectularius", Medical and Veterinary Entomology 23:163 (2009); R. A. Naylor and C. J. Boase, "Practical Solutions for Treating Laundry Infested with Cimex lectularius", Journal of Economic Entomology 103 (2010); National Pest Management Association, 2025 Bed Bug Survey Results (with The Harris Poll and the University of Florida); Penn Medicine, "Penn Medicine Epidemiologists Find Bed Bug Hotspots in Philadelphia, Identify Seasonal Trends", on Mabud, Levy et al., Journal of Medical Entomology (2014); University of Florida, "Do bed bugs have favorite colors?", on McNeill et al., Journal of Medical Entomology (2016); A. M. Polanco, C. C. Brewster and D. M. Miller, "Population Growth Potential of the Bed Bug", Insects 2:173 (2011); The Independent, "Hotel worker explains how to check for bed bugs", YouTube; traveler accounts from Reddit (via Google search excerpts) and YouTube comments.

Photo credits: CDC / Harvard University, Dr. Gary Alpert, Public domain; OH-BugMan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.