10 Years Dealing With Something No-One Wants to Talk About Despite their high recognition factor in the public’s mind (sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite) they are unsurprisingly a pest that no-one wants to discuss let alone admit to have any practical knowledge about. Well in March 2015 it will be the 10th year anniversary of www. Bed-Bugs.co.uk the domain behind dedicated bedbug specialists. Yes it may initially appear odd to have but founder and managing director David Cain had something of a understanding that the problem was going to get a lot worse before we would start to see improvements, sure enough there has been a global resurgence in the problem and the UK is very much on the frontlines in terms of tackling the issues as well as developing sustainable solutions.
biologist and later working as a city analyst David has watched the issue grow from something thought to be extinct to something which can ruin an organizations reputation in one night and tarnish an online reputation for years to come. Our business model is actually quite simple explains David. We picked a niche area and decided to go
Hotelier & Hotel Design
peoples understanding knowing that by being focused we would stay far enough ahead of the sectors we serve that there would always be a need for us. On day one I would have never imagined that I would consult with architects on the
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regards bedbugs but our research indicated it was common place in the 1920’s. My work has even taken me to South America where on one trip I not only visited and dealt with active cases but also held an educational seminar to illustrate to people how to go about dealing with infestations.
While most of our work comes from dealing with domestic based infestations we have developed a with a more systematic approach quite literally helping hotels and before guests would be aware of them. The clear advantage of this ProActive approach is that it safe guards the reputational damage that are associated with bedbugs. Such methods are also 100% green and sustainable; another when they decided to stop using any forms of synthetic insecticides having developed more effective time we need to address the long term issues such as: How will you detect the next introduction of bedbugs before it gets out of control How to best manage an incident should one occur How to repair the damage to the organizations reputation and staff morale following a protracted battle with bedbugs However, as we are seeing more and more hotels suffering from outbreaks of bedbugs and as they continue to become resistant to many of the synthetic insecticides we are also starting to see more communication on the subject. It’s still common to be asked how to “stop this from happening again” but we can all at least agree that closing the doors is not an option for a viable hotel business.
I would actively encourage all hoteliers to consider bedbugs in detection. You hardly wait till you have burnt down half your hotel to install one and guests are increasingly expected a bite free night. In a recently US presentation consumers said that being bedbug free was worth $150 per night to them on a planned trip and with review sites offering easy access to information on your reputation it’s easy to tell who has not managed an incident well enough to avoid bad publicity. For those who don’t think bedbugs will affect them we even have a special website called www. OstrichBugs.com which explains why that defense is somewhat outcome you desire. Best practice is to ensure that you have procedures, protocols and processes in place to deal with an issue should it occur and to work with your housekeeping staff to make sure they are ahead of the issue and don’t wait till things get out of control. The cost of doing so can be less than 5p per bed per night, much less than a sachet of coffee and let’s face it it’s rare to get a scathing review online because of coffee quality whereas bedbugs is a reputation best and easily avoided. I would encourage anyone wish to read more to look at the following websites: www.Bed-Bugs.co.uk/hotels.html www.BedBugFoundation.org