Bedbugs in Vegas

Won a nice amount at the Flamingo this Spring, so now I'm comped at several Total Rewards properties for the Fall. I was thinking of Caesars, and checked The Bedbug Registry. OMG! Horror story after horror story. I think only Excalibur (where I used to stay a lot) has more. What do you guys think? Anyone had a close encounter of the bedbug kind?

 

We've never seen any or had any issues at all. It would freak me out....yuck! We have only stayed at Paris or Bally's in the last many years though....

 

I've never encountered these anywhere. And I've been all over the strip.

 

Just search youtube for videos on how to check for bed bugs. It's easy enough to do and if you find any you can always complain loud enough to get a room up grade!

 

There's another thread about bedbugs at Aria somewhere. There can be bedbugs anywhere. I have been going to Vegas for 30 years and have never seen a bedbug in Vegas.

 

As another said...even the finest of the finest could have bed bugs. I stayed at The Flamingo in June and didn't have an issue. Friends of mine stayed at The Palazzo the same time. The husband woke up with bites all over him....got worse the second night. Bed bugs were never spoke of...but they did get moved to a suite...and got the rest of their meals there free. /shrug who's to say what it was....But since I'm in Vegas I'm betting it was bedbugs!

 

They can be anywhere and cost is no guarantee a hotel is BB free. My unlucky brother has been nailed 3 times. Once each in Philly, NY & the Plaza in LV, before the renovations.

Now he has like an hour routine he goes through to check the room to make sure.

I don't know if it works, but there are several variations of this on the market:

http://www.amazon.com/PackTite-Portable-Killing-Heater-Unit/dp/B002C4NVO4

 

I travel A LOT and have never encountered them anywhere, Vegas included, and because of that I simply can't imagine making them a part of the conversation for where I'd stay.

 

Once in Vegas.

 

Let me warn the people out there who have never had bed bugs.

I somehow got bedbugs in my couch only about 3 weeks ago. Total FN nightmare. I am a single, very clean, guy who rarely has visitors and zero pets. How I got them I will never know. I was in Mexico in May however I could locate any in my luggage or clothes.

Nonetheless, it cost me $600 for a tiny apartment to have them removed. The exterm. already did the first treatment and is coming back in two weeks to do another. I had to wash all my clothes, dry them, then store them in bags and move all items away from the baseboards in all my rooms so he could do what he does.

Biggest pain in the ass of my life. I am also going to trash my couch and have to buy a new one.

I was never cautious about bedbugs before but will be EXTRA cautious when I am in Vegas in 3 weeks and any other hotel.

 

Start searching Dewey threads, he has tons of info.

 

You beat me to it!
Because of Dewey's postings, and my experience with them in Laughlin, I now do what he suggests. Throw the luggage in a big plastic bag then in the tub as soon as you walk in your room. Next, get out the mini-maglight and flip the mattress. Check the bead around the mattress, boxsprings, the headboard, the floor boards, edges by where the carpet meets the wall near the bed, etc etc etc.

It takes a little time to check for them, but it sure beats waking up at 3am with little bugs chewing on your eyelids and arms.

 

My son had them in his condo high-rise on the north shore in Chicago. So many people constantly travel from his building, it seems almost impossible to stop them from reoccurring. They would chase them from one floor to another when treating the problem. He's lived out of plastic garment bags and such for as much as 6 months of the year. Has thrown away his bedding several times and replaced fabric couches and chairs, all for precautionary reasons. Once they are in a building, there is hell to pay.

 

Is that the user?
Searched on the user Dewey and no hits found.

 

Here is the Dewey post pertaining to bedbugs:

Bed bug experiences
I had two bedbug sightings this trip, one in the Gold Spike and one at the Four Queens. The first was more than likely a case of the hotel using a mattress pad after the bugs had been killed. It looked as if dead bugs had caught in the rough texture of the small pad just above the mattress. There was no other indication of any bedbugs, but any indication means I ask for a room change and I get it.

The second was more real.


I arrived at the Four Queens at about nine in the morning and they were willing to book me, but only had quiet rooms in the North Tower. I was moving from The D and wanted to be able to walk it in two trips, so I abandoned my request for South Tower and took the North Tower.


Quiet is my one concern.


And Bedbugs.


I walked up without luggage and there were the little black dots in the crevice of the mattress. I was really motivated to talk myself out of the first sighting of just two insects because I wanted an early booking, and I feared I'd lose that advantage. Maybe I was overreacting to lint, I thought. But I could not talk myself out of seeing a long line of the telltale black dots in the crevice of the seam on one side of the mattress.


So down I went for a room change.


I have been moved twice before, last trip in the Flamingo and then this one in The Gold Spike, and I exspected that the bugs would be treated like no big deal by management, and they would remove me without much attention to the issue. Perhaps I would lose the advantage of my early booking and have to really pack to move from the D afterall because I'd need to store with the Bell Captain.


Not here.


Immediately the clerk set out to lock up a new room for me, but explained I needed to make a security report. She took the issue very seriously. In two minutes a security guard arrived. I wrote a statement and signed it and my photo ID was photographed and added to the paperwork.


He wrote down the number of the room I was going to.


Clearly they would follow up and inspect that room after I left.


There would have been attention to my bags as well if I had spent the night with the bugs. The guard said that they would inspect my luggage if it had been exposed. I don't have much faith in visual inspection of luggage, but that is what they do.


As I was going to inspect my new room 1209, the guard was going to inspect the infected room 417, but he did not know I was directly behind him.


As we passed the fellow sitting security in the casino high seat, the guard mentioned where he was going and why. From his tone I caught that he was skeptical of what I had seen. So they must get false reports.


We were in the elevator together and talked about the problem. He had encountered them in a high end resort property he managed in North Carolina, and said that they could occur anywhere, that they were common wherever there was a high turnover of transient visitors.


He told me what I already knew, but everything he told me was true.


I liked him.


He was down to earth and what he said made common sense. I asked if I could watch his inspection. He was happy to have me because I could show him just what I saw.


We did not do much of an inspection because what I showed him was plenty. He said he thought they were eggs rather than live bugs, and he photographed one section of the mattress. The next day I saw him again and he said he suspected that it was a case of poor housekeeping after the bugs had been fried by heat.
They treat there with high temperature heaters and fry the bugs and eggs and everything.


So, one more good note on the Four Queens. They take bedbugs seriously, keep records, have an immediate inspection, follow up by checking where the guest goes next, and use the best extermination methods. It was the most attentive reaction to bedbug worries that I have encountered. And their procedures were serious and attentive immediately, with the inspection happening just minutes after my finding and reporting the sighting and all was done in spite of the fact that my reporting may have seemed questionable to them.


This is already my favorite casino for gambling comps and how I am treated in general. Their serious attention to my biggest worry when traveling just increases my respect.


Contrast the Flamingo where two trips ago I found bloodspots and put a live bug under a glass. Their attitude was close to "whatever" and as far as I know nothing was written down or any report made. No one asked me to show them anything. No one took the new room number so they could look there later.


I really thought that after the Flamingomoved me, they would just remake the bed, replace the cushions which showed bedbug activity, and rent the room again.


It did not make me want to stay there again.


Don't confuse my finding bedbugs at low end properties with a widely held myth that like roaches, fleas, etc they are a result of poor cleaning. They can be anywhere. I only inspect low end properties because I only book low end properties. Bellagio has had bedbugs, but I have not been there to see them.


Keep checking before you move in luggage. I am getting more confident that seeing them is not rocket science. These were clear.


I do think that hotels like Sam's Town where the mattresses are so wrapped up in layers of mattress covers that we can't actually get to the seams to see what is there might be more difficult to inspect. I'm more comfortable when I can just rip the bed apart and check the entire seam and see behind the headboard with my flashlight. The headboards at Imperial Palace were light and lifted off the wall easily. I liked that. No one is vacuuming behind the headboard, so if bugs are in the room, they will most likely be visible there. I always check with a little flashlight, but it is awkward.


Oh, I also sprayed my clothing and shoes that went in the infested Four Queens room although nothing looked alive there. Just another precaution.


The spray is easy to pack.


Also, I think it is good to have a plan of action in case we miss them and sleep with them. When we get home, nothing should come in the house until it is bagged and then all clothing and shoes should be put in a dryer and all luggage at least cleaned and sprayed.


In my case I have an extra chest freezer and I'd just bag my suitcase and put the whole thing in deep freeze for a few months.


I read so many reports that say, "We hope we have not brought them home with us." and wonder why they have taken no precautions to make that a better bet.


Oh, speaking of betting. To compensate me for my inconvenience and reward me for my attentive inspection, the Four Queens had the 10/7 Double Bonus Progressive ( the best DB in the world) deal me a $1045 Royal Flush in hearts in the first five cards on the very next day. Karma.


I've been saying that encountering bedbugs is a lot like catching a Royal. It seems that is more than an analogy. We go along inspecting and inspecting and the bugs never seem to show up, just as we keep tossing hand after hand. Then suddenly the rare occurrence happens and our faith in ultimate possibilities is rewarded.


As I spend my $1045 royal winnings, I'll remember my luck at having it dealt to me and my luck finding those little buggers before I slept with them.


I like to think I apply a good strategy to both games. But to win at a bedbug inspection and not take them home with me, perhaps saves me ten times the royal winnings.
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I am a notoriously light traveler, so one easy anti-bedbug trick is to take out the luggage rack and store my luggage, and any textiles in the bathroom. It is said that the bugs won't live in there, and since I carry so little, it's a small inconvenience. Of course they can still bite the hell out of you as you sleep, but at least you don't bring them home.

Glad to hear that most hotels are not in denial about this problem.

 

I dont know why, but lately I have been so paranoid about bed bugs! its been all over the news, how Milwaukee was higher than Vegas on the list of cities with bugs....I think, just like flying, I have heard a lot about both bed bugs and plane accidents in the last month. Of course, this has to be when im going to be flying in a month and staying at the Flamingo in Vegas, which is having all kinds of issues! I am one of those people who believe that this is a sign that I should NOT go on this trip & if it was just my hubby and I, I would cancel, but its a group of people who are super excited!

 

I dont think I wanna leave my house after reading this!