On our third night of four, my girlfriend and I couldn’t sleep and were lying in bed talking at about 4 a.m. She got up to use the bathroom and when she returned she noticed a bug on the top sheet towards the foot of the bed. I grabbed a tissue, picked it up and took it to the bathroom to flush it down the toilet. I noticed it was an unusual looking bug, flat like a tick. I turned my computer on, curious to see what it was and found out that in fact it was an adult bed bug.
We looked around the bedding and pillows to see if there were any more and then called the front desk to see about getting a new room. We were told it was completely booked. I asked them to change all the linen in the room and clean it as we would be at Disneyland all day and didn’t have the time to check out and look for another hotel as it was our last day in the area.
I started reading about bed bugs online and where they like to nest, so I pulled the bed away from the wall and lifted up the top mattress and looked at the bed skirt and found a nest of them right in the center. I found it totally disgusting knowing that the last three nights we were sleeping there with our heads just inches away from it. I grabbed one of them and sealed it in a Tupperware bowl and left it on the refrigerator. I called the front desk again and was told this time that they actually did have FOUR vacant rooms we could move to. We went through every item of our clothing and searched our suitcases and moved to the new room.
We checked the new room top to bottom to see if there were any signs of bed bugs there and didn’t find anything. The room was clean but I did find it odd that the pull out couch was still extended and the coffee table and cushions were on the other side of the room. If we didn’t already have tickets for Disneyland we would have been long gone.
After we returned form Disneyland at about 10 p.m., we noticed that our laundry bag was missing and figured out that I had left it on top of the desk cabinet after I had checked it for bed bugs in the previous room (432). I called the front desk and asked if they had seen it and she said no but would give me a key to check the old room. I went to the room and had seen they had removed all the linen, except the bed skirt with the bed bug nest, the Tupperware bowl was now on the counter-bed bug still inside, and my laundry bag was missing. I went back to the front desk and asked if she knew where it was at and she said it may be with the dirty linen.
I explained to her that we were leaving early and needed to get it back before we left. She said somebody from housekeeping would be coming in soon and she would ask them to look for it. I asked to call me no matter what time and I would come and get it.
It was a big mistake staying, both of us could not sleep the entire night. Every time you would itch or feel something on your skin we would go into panic mode.
The next morning I called the front desk at 7 a.m. and let it ring about 30 times, no answer. I called again at 7:30 and after about twenty rings they finally picked up. When I explained to the person what was going on she didn’t have a clue because the girl from the shift prior didn’t pass it along. I was then told it may be in the lost & found and would have to wait until 8:30 until the manager came in with the key.
We loaded the car and went to the front desk at 8:30. The manager looked around for it and came out and tried to hand it to me. I said before I take it, can you tell me where it has been? She said it was put in with the dirty linen and I asked her, do you mean the dirty linen from the room with the bed bugs? She said, no it was with the other dirty linen, which I found hard to believe and asked her to put it in a plastic bag, which she did.
Lesson learned, upon check in look for bed bugs from top to bottom before brining my suitcases in and accepting the room. There is also a website called Bed Bug Registry that has reports of hotels that have bed big issues. I’m at home now, have all my clothes and suitcases in the shower, going through each item and washing everything. After reading some of the horror stories of bed bugs online, I do not want those things in my house.