Cleanliness and hygiene are the cornerstones of any successful hotel. All the clean sheets and pillow mints in the world won’t matter if a customer finds rat droppings on their nightstand or wakes up covered in bed bug bites.
In a world where bad reviews appear on the internet in a split second, your hotel’s reputation can’t afford pest infestations. Your customers do their research—and if a bit of digging reveals past guests in your hotel, motel, or bed & breakfast have experienced pest problems, potential customers will take their business elsewhere.
KING-SIZED BEDBUGS
With more people travelling internationally, the frequency of bed bug infestations in hotels have greatly increased.
The main cause? Your guests unwittingly unleash them onto your premises.
Since they can live for months without feeding, bed bugs have an easy time latching onto your guests’ luggage, and leaving a trail of mayhem from hotel to the next.
Managing Bed Bug Infestations in Your Hotel:
- Bed bug traps detect potential infestations. Removing access to common harborage within your building’s structure will neutralize spreading.
- Bed bug prevention should be implemented in your daily business practices. Train your staff to detect signs of bed bugs, and to check for infestations during room cleanings.
- Even when taking all possible preventative measures, an infestation may be inevitable, so it’s important to minimize the damage with a built-in policy for handling bed bug complaints. If the situation is handled correctly, any anxious guests will be more forgiving of the infraction.
Hotel Pest Inspections
FIVE STAR RODENTS
Your hotel is vulnerable to rodent infestations because of the surplus of food supplies in kitchens, restaurants, and waste storage areas.
Rats and mice contaminate your hotel’s foods and surfaces with diseases such as salmonella, e. coli, and leptospirosis. A rodent infestation could lead to thousands of dollars in wasted food supplies and structural damage to your building.
Managing Rodent Infestations in Your Hotel:
- Keep a watchful eye for droppings, smudge marks along walls, and gnaw marks around holes in the building, and on food packaging. These are key indicators of rodent infestations.
- Maintaining exemplary hygiene standards throughout the food delivery, storage, preparation, serving, and disposal areas usually keeps rodents at bay.
- Rats and mice can squeeze through the tiniest of gaps underneath a door. Doorways, vents, windows, and entry points for pipes and cables should be constructed and maintained to stop even the smallest of holes from forming around them.
ROOM SERVICE, WITH A SIDE OF ROACH
Similar to rats, cockroaches are attracted to food sources. They’ll infest kitchens, restaurants, rooms, bars, public washrooms, and guest room bathrooms in your hotel. In other words, they’ll spread everywhere.
As a nocturnal species, cockroaches stay hidden in furniture, equipment, food packaging, and cracks in the building structure during the day. While there are many different kinds of roaches with varying climate preferences, they generally prefer humidity.
Cockroaches cause a litany of health problems. They contaminate the air with pathogenic microrganisms such as staphylococcus and parasitic worms, and produce allergens from shedding their skins.
Managing Cockroach Infestations in Your Hotel:
- Proactive cockroach prevention practices take time. Ensure food storage and preparation areas are pristine, and remove residues from all surfaces – especially floors.
- Food must be stored in cockroach-proof containers, and you should implement waste handling practices that keeps food waste in a well-maintained storage area.
Contributed by: Natural Pest Solutions
Natural Pest Solutions
Suite #1 2160 Wilkinson St.
Kelowna, BC. V1Y-3Z8
phone 778-760-1356
