If a guest brings in bed bugs to your place, Airbnb will not cover any costs/damages resulting from vermin. Read the insurance language carefully. Costs are on you for a new mattress, new furniture, cancelled reservations.
If you report that a guest brought in bed bugs (or that you have bed bugsin your place), Airbnb will cancel your reservations and UNLIST your listing.
You will be told that there is no way to prove that that guest brought in bed bugs. Again, there is a vermin clause that specifically states that both the insurance and the security deposit do not cover bed bugs/vermin.
Airbnb will cover up to $100 for a pest company to conduct an INSPECTION to determine if there is any trace of bed bugs. If there is no trace, you will get a certificate which you then send to Airbnb. These types of inspections cost several hundred dollars.
You are on your own with bed bug issues so be very careful about who you pick as a guest.
My suggestion:
Avoid accepting reservations from locals. Meaning that if you live in Boston do not accept reservations from people who are also Boston. Why? Because they are probably between apts or for whatever reason go from Airbnb to Airbnb every month. Or, maybe they left their apts bc of a bed bug issue.
New Yorks: do not accept New Yorkers for this same reason. Stick with travels on vacations because the in-between-apts are a HUGE GAMBLE!!