Hotels and guesthouses

Hotels and guesthouses have a problem most premises do not: the people affected by a pest issue are paying to be there, and they write about it. That changes the priority order. Discretion and speed matter as much as the treatment itself.

Bed bugs are the issue that causes the most damage, and they are worth understanding properly. They arrive in luggage, not from poor cleaning, so a spotless property is as exposed as any other. They hide in the seams of mattresses, in bed frames and headboards, behind loose skirting and inside bedside furniture, and they can be present for weeks before anyone is bitten badly enough to complain.

Our approach is room by room and includes the rooms either side and the ones directly above and below, because bed bugs move through wall voids and service penetrations. Treating only the room that complained is the most common reason a hotel thinks it has dealt with the problem and hears about it again a fortnight later. Products go into seams, frames, cracks and voids rather than across surfaces guests touch, bedding is never treated, and a room is ready to use once the application has dried and the room has aired. A follow-up visit is part of the job rather than an extra, because eggs surviving the first treatment are what bring an infestation back.

Cockroaches sit in the kitchens and the back of house areas and are handled the same way as any commercial kitchen: gel into the voids, not spray across the surfaces.

Mosquitoes matter more here than in most sectors because they affect whether guests can sit outside in the evening. Gardens, pool surrounds and planted areas hold water in more places than people expect, and dealing with those does more than fogging. We go through the breeding sites first.

Rodents turn up around bin stores, kitchen yards and any part of the building where deliveries arrive.

We schedule around occupancy. Treating a room takes it out of service for a period, so we would rather work through a floor when it is quiet than take rooms out during a full week. Technicians arrive in plain vehicles where you ask for it, and we do not need to walk through a public area carrying equipment if there is another way in.

For a guesthouse or a single hotel this is a manageable, routine arrangement. For a chain with a group wide compliance programme, the parent company Securekil handles that scale and we will introduce you rather than stretch.