With the summer vacation season well underway, guests are coming and going and the opportunity for your hotel or motel to get bed bugs is increasingly high during June, July, and August. So being proactive and preventative will help you avoid the nasty insects as best you can. Follow some of the simple steps below to protect your facility from bed bugs:

1 – Have a plan. Just like every business should have a disaster plan for succession planning during the worst times possible, hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts need to be ready for bed bugs. Detail the daily, weekly and monthly cleanings and pest control services that have been provided to know how recently a room has been protected.

2 – Train your staff. From housekeeping to facilities management to front office management, your staff needs to know how to deal with a bed bug infestation or even a report of one. Respond immediately to all requests by guests, move them to a new room and do whatever you can to eliminate their concerns as quickly as possible. The more you do at the moment they report it, the less chance you’ll ever hear of it on social media.

3 – React properly. Remember that not only is a bed bug infestation or report affecting one room, it should be affecting several rooms. Consider the guests in the adjoining and above and below rooms, as well. Inform, relocate and pamper those guests the same way you did the first one.

4 – Be proactive. Hire a licensed Pest Management Professional (PMP) to regularly inspect and treat your entire facility. Using monitoring products is a proactive way to stay ahead of an infestation, and so is using strong natural products that are university-researched and proven to kill bed bugs, like EcoRaider.

For more information about bed bug prevention, visit the National Pest Management Association’s protocol for bed bugs in hotels and lodging.