He saw the bite marks, but Craig Berndt brushed them off at first. Then a couple of days after he first saw the bites, he spotted a bed bug on his body.
Berndt, a local construction worker, was staying at a hotel after a relationship break-up while waiting for his new Britannia Beach rental to come available Dec. 1.
Upon seeing the bed bug, he panicked, he says. He had dealt with them before in a rental when he lived back east and didn’t like the idea of having them again, he said.
“I am traumatized because of having lived with it in Montreal,” Berndt said.
After finding the bug on his body in Squamish, Berndt said he nervously went to the hotel mattress and was sickened to discover signs of adult bedbugs.
The hotel gave Berndt his money back and an extra $300 to treat his belongings, but not a new room. The hotel management told him to leave, Berndt said. He soon found there’s no way to ensure the next guests don’t face the same problem.
The issue is no matter who you are or where you are staying there isn’t much recourse for consumers who find themselves in a room infested with the bugs and very little that can be done to protect future consumers from facing them too.
When he first spoke to The Squamish Chief Berndt was sitting in his truck at the Wal-Mart parking lot, in the pouring rain waiting for his belongings to be treated.
He couldn’t move to a new place the first night because he didn’t want to spread the bugs to anywhere or anyone else, so he slept in his truck.
“I’d like to see legislation,” Berndt said, adding hotels should be forced to treat the problem, have the treatment inspected and have repeat inspections to ensure the bedbugs aren’t back. “Because it becomes an epidemic very fast.”
Berndt pointed out if he hadn’t quarantined himself right away and dealt with the bugs he could have spread them to another establishment or to the homes of friends and family who then could have spread it themselves.
The bottom line is there’s no regulatory body that inspects or acts on hotels if they have bed bug infestations: A fact that shocked Berndt.
Bed bug infestations don’t contravene the District of Squamish’s Business Licence Bylaw, according to district staff.
A health and safety concern documented by the health authority would trigger a review of the license by the district, but a representative with Vancouver Coastal Health told The Squamish Chief the bugs are considered a “nuisance” and not a health issue because they are not associated with the transmission of disease to humans. The BC Hotel Association is not a regulatory body and has no ability to investigate such incidents, a communications person for the association said.
Tourism Squamish does not have a complaints department.
“Typically when we receive a complaint from a visitor regarding a member we address the complaint directly with the member to see if we can resolve it,” said Lesley Weeks, executive director with Tourism Squamish.
Weeks said no recent complaints had been called in regarding bed begs.
“ Bed bugs can and do happen in many hotels from one to five stars. It is how the hotel property deals with the problem that is the issue.”
Consumer Protection BC doesn’t handle bed bug issues. Had Bernt not received a refund from the hotel he could have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, but since he received compensation and the Bureau is not an enforcement agency, it wouldn’t be much help either.
The health authority does offer advice on its website regarding bedbugs. For hotel management the advice includes hire a pest control company, monitor adjacent suites, record incidents and treatment; purchase bed bug resistant covers for mattresses and train cleaning staff to recognize the bugs.
Ultimately Berndt said he sees the situation as a test of his positive spirit.
“This is like a challenge for me to maintain positivity,” he said.
At a hotel
* Keep clothes off the floor
*Advise hotel manager if bed bugs spotted
*Request a new room
*Check all belongings to prevent spread of bed bugs
* At home, check all items when unpacking
*Contain and seal bed bug infested items before treating or discarding
~Vancouver Coastal Health
