Ew! Avoiding Nasty Bedbugs While Traveling etal

Being the avid traveler given my profession, hotel room and cruise cabin cleanliness has always been but is becoming more a growing concern of mine. Relative to this is the more pronounced concern for bed bugs and how to avoid getting bit by or even worse, bringing them home with you.
First know that bed bugs do NOT discriminate--even the cushiest of hotels may have to fumigate from time to time. Cleanliness of the hotel doesn’t play a role either. These pesky creatures are brought in by travelers.
Here are a few pro-active Contrino Travel suggest you can do to try to avoid bed bugs.
Upon entering the room, do NOT throw your luggage onto the bed (even with the spread on). Hotels generally provide a collapsible luggage rack—use it, instead of the bed. If you do unpack, do so after checking your room for bed bugs. If you store your suitcase in the closet, put it in a trash bag that you’ve already packed in your luggage. You might want to pack a few plastic baggies too. The TV remote was found to have the most germs, so it would behoove you to throw it into a plastic baggie before channel surfing.
In addition, immediately remove the bedspread. Do not put it on any couch or chair that you have intentions using. If possible, introduce yourself to the cleaning person, asking them to keep it off for your entire stay.
Next, check under the mattress, looking for small a reddish-brown spot (which is dried excrement). Be sure to check the crevices of the mattress too—while difficult to find these bugs, this is where they typically hide.
Also, if there are any couches or chairs in the room that you will be using, check them too, same way you would check a mattress, checking the crevices. This goes for throw pillows as well.
If after this process you do note any of the above, immediately call or go to the Front Desk. If necessary, ask to speak to a manager and report your findings. This person should provide a full refund and offer to move you to another room. If you decide to stay on property, it is strongly recommend that you complete the above steps to ensure cleanliness. Typically, if one room has infestation, there may be others too within that property.
If hotel staff refuses to change your room and/or offer a 100% refund, move to another property and be sure to post your ill findings on Trip Advisor or, if you have a Twitter account, tweet your experience. Nowadays, the power of the Internet works wonders!
It ceases to amaze how more far-advanced the international hotel arena is in comparison to US hotel properties. If you travel to Europe, Mexico and most Caribbean destinations you’ll find the rooms tiled versus a rug. Common sense dictates that tile is so much easier to keep clean—how often do you think they shampoo the rugs? Also, you will find energy-saving techniques, one of which is using your room key to turn the electric on and off in your room. The US is just catching on with this, as evidenced by a recent stay at the Aria in Las Vegas.
Other quick and easy things to do for a more clean-friendly room is to carry a miniature spray can of Lysol, using it on the phone, door knobs and anything else you deem necessary. Relatively these travel size cans are relatively inexpensive and easy to pack.
Lastly, it used to be that the toothbrush would be put in the glass in the bathroom that the hotel provided. Now, that doesn’t happen until that glass gets washed in hot water AND soap!