Bedbugs, Bedbugs, Whatcha Gonna Do?

The good news is that vacancy rates are low across the hotel business in San Francisco. The bad news is that at least some of those rooms may be off the rolls as they are being fumigated. When we wrote our original post on San Francisco's growing bedbug infestation, we were at a loss to come up with direct reports of encounters with the parasites in some of The City's hotels. Well, Hotel Chatter dropped us a note to point to this tale of abject terror:

But by the morning of the 27th, my arms, legs and other parts of my body were full of bug bites (I took some pictures of the bites). As I was sitting on the edge of the bed putting my shoes on, I saw something crawling on the pillowcase. I carefully took a zip-lock type plastic bag and caught the little bug. I knew right away what I was dealing with.

I removed the sheets off the bed and found more bugs. I went to the front desk to report my find, and to my indignation, the person that was in charge didn't seem to care much. He absently told me he was going to report the incident to the manager. Even after I showed him the bites and the bugs in the bag I did not get a "We're terribly sorry" or "Is there something we can do for you", at the very least offer me some lotion for the itching and inconvenience.

The good news is that Hotel Chatter has also had reports of infestations in Vancouver and London from just the past few weeks, so at least we're not alone as a worldclass travel destination where tourists are tormented by blood suckers and, apparently, bedbugs. So next time you decide to head back to a hotel with a Marina Girl or Guy you've picked up at MatrixFillmore, you've got yet another set of cooties to worry about. Might we suggest getting it on in the shower?

Photo: Dramatic re-enactment of infestation at the Heritage Marina Hotel. Bedbugs pictured may not be actual size.