@John1523
Hi John, @Regina38 has the answer you must have really good quality mattress protectors and pillow protectors. Mine get changed and washed between each guest along with the linens. Ovbviously some guests are not going to put you at risk but, for any youngish travellers here on holiday I make a point of showing them the steps I go through to make sure I never have this problem, stressing that it for their safety as well as mine. If there are ever bedbugs in this listing, it is the guest who is complaining that has introduced them.
And John there are guests who have cottoned onto the fact they can have a free holiday by playing the bedbug card! One I came across last year in support carried a supply of them....I was not privy to the mechanics of how he and his partner kept them alive but they introduced them to a listing during the last couple of days of a scheduled two week stay, claimed from Airbnb and got a full refund for the entire trip and the hosts listing was shut down until an exterminators clearance cerificate could be provided to Airbnb. They came unstuck because they, the previous year, pulled same stunt and were immediately banned from the platform. But the damage was done. That stay cost the host thousands!
It is probably never likely to happen unless you are into the backpacker end of the market John but document everything you do. Keep date stamped photos of your washing regime. Don't just hang your bedding on a line to dry. Bedbugs cannot handle high heat, Always dry (or give the impression to suspect guests) you dry your bedding in a commercial clothes dryer. Domestic dryers are not hot enough but,
bedbugs will not survive 30 minutes in a laundomat dryer on high heat. Give Airbnb no reason to side with the guest.....As it has happened in the past CS do now take a harder line with bedbug complaints and require a good deal of proof before they will take a guests word for it.
Cheers......Rob