For Hotels, Bedbugs Are Bad Enough - Research Report Assignment

Internal Code: MAS5911

Research Report Assignment:

The worst hotel experiences can be caused by an insect smaller than a fingernail clipping. Take the New Jersey physician who was working in a Midtown Manhattan hotel room during a business trip in January when he noticed a bug on his arm. An inspection turned up about 30 more in the room, he said. The doctor had discovered the scourge of the hotel: bedbugs. “It turned me into a complete paranoid hotel dweller,” said the physician, who travels nearly weekly for work and did not want to be named because of the stigma attached to the insect. “I wake up in the night thinking every little itch is a bedbug.” The tiny, biting bugs are causing headaches for hotel owners who not only have to figure out how to get rid of them but also now have to respond to online accusations of bedbug infestations. In an age of online reviews and social media, what was a quietly simmering issue has become a potentially toxic problem for hotels. After Kyrie Irving, the star point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, complained For Hotels, Bedbugs Are Bad Enough, and Social Media Adds to about bedbugs at an Oklahoma City hotel in February, Twitter exploded with messages of disgust. Hilton responded with a public apology to Mr Irving. In addition to complaining about bedbugs on Twitter and sites like TripAdvisor and Expedia, travellers use more specific sites like the Bedbug Registry (which notes it was founded by a computer programmer in 2006 “as a way of getting vengeance against bedbugs after a traumatic experience in a San Francisco hotel”). Those complaints may or may not be accurate. Two-thirds of travellers surveyed by the University of Kentucky, last year couldn’t identify a bedbug. Correct or not, those complaints have high stakes for hotels. A University of Kentucky survey of nearly 2,100 travellers in the United States found that a single recent review that mentions bedbugs lowers hotel room values by $38 for business travellers and $23 for leisure travellers. “It’s kind of a wake-up call to the hotels,” said Michael Potter, a University of Kentucky entomology professor and a co-author of the bedbug report. “There really is a big impact on purchasing decisions.” Many travellers even note a lack of bedbugs in their reviews. One person titled a November TripAdvisor review of the Hilton Garden Inn Times Square “A room in NY without bed bugs!” Even when hotels figure out how to kill off an infestation, owners must remain vigilant. “You’ve got people coming from all over the world and they bring in these bugs,” said Bob Ernstoff, who owns the Mayfair New York hotel near Times Square. “It’s a very tough topic. You can’t stop people from travelling.” Several hotel chains referred calls to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which provides members with information on how to deal with bedbug infestations. Many hotels have developed response plans to manage the pests quickly, said Rosanna Maietta, an association spokeswoman.