Guest brought bed bugs, and now I'm screwed

[Kelly28]

So a guest brought bed bugs into my home. Airbnb refunded him, and canceled all my pending bookings. Now I have to pay out of pocket $1000 to have an exterminator come (airbnb requires an exterminator to relist), not to mention the booking I lost.

Has anyone got any tips or ideas on reducing risk? What cities and parts of the world are known to have serious bedbug problems? I have heard NYC has a serious problem, I am thinking of not accepting any guests from there. Ideas? 

[Cindy163]

I have been renting my Kauai home for 27 years and this is the first time I had bed bugs.  Fortunately, I found them myself before anyone complained.  I went to stay at the house for three weeks to check on everything and do the usual maintenance and cleaning only an owner can do.  After the second night, I noticed bites on myself and thought it was from sand fleas at the beach. After the third night, I had bites from head to toe.  My pest control company confirmed bed bugs.  The best, safest solution was tent fumigation of the house:  $3300.00.  So, that is what I did.  

[Sara455]

bb

[Catherine232]

That's horrendous! So sorry Cindy. One more thing to worry about now >.<

[Dale75]

A bedbug free room for years which suddenly has bed bugs  means a guest has brought them in.  The guest can then demand a refund, write a bad review, and you have to pay $1200 for a pro treatment.  Or a guest who is denied a refund can claim to have seen bedbugs, get the refund, cost you $1200, and a bad review.  Airbnb policy punishes the host when guests bring in bed bugs and  any guest can lie about bedbugs and get refund and force you to pay $1200.  Time for a change.

[Elena3677]

yes a guest brought them, but you don't know which guest.  there is gap in time before the pests are introduced to your property and them getting noticed.  that gap can be months or less.  just because a guest gets bitten, it does not mean they are the ones who brought them.  it could have been the person before or the person before that and so on.  there should be insurance to cover it but i guess the insurance companies will not accept that type of thing even though they should.  it is wrong and ugly to blame the host as if we are responsible for the existance of insects in the universe.  pisses me off.  i think the government should be involved in helping home owners cope with this tragic circumstance.  should be treated like a hurricane hit your house.  it is a natural disaster and not really anyones 'fault'. 

[Silvia543]

This just happnened to me.  It was a three month booking and the husband showed up on check in date and his wife joined him 10 days later.  The first night they are together, they get bitten.  The two other bedrooms in the floor dont get bit. This includes another airbnb guest who is still in my home. Nobody in the second floor gets bit.  They left and airbnb cancelled all my listings and cancelled the 3 months for this guest.  I called an expert who could not find any bed bugs but knows they were there. I have to spend $1500 to make sure. Meanwhile I have lost $3000 plus.  I find that Airbnb should do more here. The client called them to activate the case. I should have called them alarmed saying that a guest had brought bed bugs in. I am really upset.

Ihave never had bed bugs and I live in a suburb. The house was completely renovated 3 years ago. People dont have bed bugs in this area.

New York is infested but I think anyone in a plane with checqued baggage can get it from another baggage it touches and come with it. So, its not just people from NYC it is also people who come by plane with chequed baggage.

[Cindy163]

So sorry, Silvia!  It happened to my Kauai house this year, too.  Tent fumigation is the only way to go with this, and it cost over $3000.  I discovered it personally before any guest did.  I have been doing vacation rental with this house for 27 years, and with airbnb for nearly as many years as they have existed.  It is a risk I had never considered before it happened.  I think airbnb is making enough money that they could carry insurance for us for this problem.  It is complicated though.  

[Nakiya0]

This is a really big problem that Airbnb and other short-term rental sites and blogs are sweeping under the rug. Need to shed light on the issue and figure out ways to address it more openly. Currently no support from Airbnb, and its super costly..happened to us over the summer during the busy season and Airbnb just wanted to cancel everything. We would have losts thousands of dollars, its just crazy how they penalize the hosts for these occurences.

[Katie145]

I agree.  In my opinion, if it can be proven that the guests brought the bed bugs, it is a type of damage to the apartment/room, and they should pay for the clean-up out of the damage deposit or insurance.  Why should the owner, who has to do all the clean-up and hire a fumigator, be penalized for something they did not cause and pay for all the costs too?   Airbnb clearly favors the guests and not the owners.  I had this happen to me too, and nearly gave up on this business.

KC

[Brian507]

I'm curious if you have any update on this? Have you been able to receive compensation for damage due to bed bugs?

[Elena3677]

bed bugs are in all 50 states.  i hear the cities are worse.  cincinatti is hit hard.  nyc too.  there was an article about paris suffereing from this blight.  many other cities and no place is safe from them.  remediation should be included in insurance coverage.  it sucks raising insurance rates but it is just too expensive.  

[Allison116]

I use bed bug mattress and pillow covers. And, while a lot of work i wash everything in between guests. Not just sheets and pillow cases but also blankets, comforters, pillow protectors, decorative pillows, pillow shams etc. I also thoroughly clean and vacuum  between guests. I even vacuum out drawers and closet shelving .

[Elena3677]

its great you are cleaning so well between guests, but none of that will prevent a bed bug infestation if they land in your place, not like it won't help, but ultimately hard chemicals is the only way to erradicate them if they end up in your place.  

[Edwin57]

My Dad told me to make sure for me to make sure that I leave a day free before cheack in and cheack out for him my Dad and the cleaning company witch is s&b cleaning services inc for them to do a walk though and a GI general cleaning for things like this 

[Andrew-and-Violet0]

I'm very close to bailing on this Airbnb idea after a second report of bed bugs. We had such a good experience with our first listing and have had hundreds of guests from all over the world stay without any issues. We decided to list a second space (apartment above primary residence) and bought everything new. Things were great and then we had a guest stay with us for a month that was moving back from outside of the US and we are quite certain that this is when they were introduced to our home. 

Unfortunately, our next guests were the ones that actually made the discovery. We found them in the cracks of the bedframe and I sprayed them right away with an Ortho product which took care of the ones that were visible. It was extremely embarrassing,  very expensive, and we felt so bad for our guests. I'm not a fan of how Airbnb handles this situation; it almost felt like we were being punished and they will also immediately try to line up alternate housing for the displaced guests at a nearby Airbnb...so keep that in mind hosts! They, without a doubt, need to figure out a better way to handle this. They shut us down for 1 month to provide time for a professional service to complete 3 treatments. The techs said that didn't see a single live bug during any of the treatments and that on a scale from 1-10 our problem was a 1 or maybe even .5.

 So, a couple thousand dollars later we are back in action and booking up and about a month in another guest has spotted a bed bug. I have been watching like a hawk for any sign and cleaning like a person with OCD ever since the first experience and I just can't believe this. This might sound ridiculous but I almost think that the hotel industry or other Airbnb haters are paying people to plant them or something. A really wonderful idea has started to turn into a nightmare and I'm just not sure what to do : (