Got bed bugs? Bedbugger.com » tropicana http://bedbugger.com bed bug news, information, activism, and support Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:15:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 en Hotel housekeeping staff offered $25 bounty per head on bed bugs http://bedbugger.com/2008/04/04/hotel-housekeeping-staff-offered-25-bounty-per-head-on-bed-bugs/ http://bedbugger.com/2008/04/04/hotel-housekeeping-staff-offered-25-bounty-per-head-on-bed-bugs/#comments Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:24:37 +0000 nobugsonme http://bedbugger.com/2008/04/04/hotel-housekeeping-staff-offered-25-bounty-per-head-on-bed-bugs/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Hotel housekeeping staff offered $25 bounty per head on bed bugs", url: "http://bedbugger.com/2008/04/04/hotel-housekeeping-staff-offered-25-bounty-per-head-on-bed-bugs/" });]]> The Las Vegas Sun reports that the Tropicana has offered staff $25 for each live bed bug they find and capture.

The owners of the embattled Tropicana hotel have placed a bounty on bedbugs, offering housekeepers $25 a pop for each one brought in alive.

The offer was posted in the hotel’s housekeeping offices, raising eyebrows among workers wondering whether they should pull out magnifying glasses while changing sheets.

“Don’t forget to check for bedbugs!” one flier exclaims in English and Spanish. “Check every room — every day.” The posting features enlarged images of the minuscule bloodsucking menaces.

The union suggests staff need training in how to find bed bugs, but the management say their pest control firm Ecolab already provides such training to housekeeping staff. The hotel denied there was a bed bug “problem:”

The Sun’s inquiries to Tropicana parent company Columbia Sussex drew a stiff rebuke, including the implied threat of a lawsuit.

“There isn’t a problem. Period,” spokesman Hud Englehart said in a statement.

The incentive program is part of what the Tropicana calls its “Five Star Awards” program, he said, and is intended simply to keep housekeepers on the lookout for potential problems.

“No hotel is immune from (bedbugs) and every hotel takes precautions to ensure that incidents are detected so that infestations are prevented,” Englehart said. “We are no different.”

It is true that bed bugs are a possibility in any hotel, anywhere.

So far, no Tropicana housekeepers have cashed in on a bed bug:

Despite the incentive program, no live bedbugs have been brought in for cash redemption, Englehart noted. (Nor, apparently, has anyone brought in bedbugs from outside sources to see whether they could game the system.)

Gregg Wears, supervisor for the Las Vegas Strip office of the Southern Nevada Health District, said the Tropicana gets an average number of bedbug complaints, but wouldn’t elaborate. The health agency receives two or three such complaints districtwide a week, and complaints are more frequent in residential properties, he said.

I am glad hotels are training housekeeping staff to look for bed bugs, and glad they are getting some kind of incentive to look.

However, staff need careful training and I hope they are getting it.  It needs to go beyond photos of bed bugs; they need to know how to look.

And they also need more time to do such inspections, and cannot be expected to get through as many rooms as they did in the past when they were only charged with cleaning tasks.

Finally, hotels should find ways to combine this incentive program with other detection methods: bed bug dog walk-throughs and careful PCO inspections should be considered.

Housekeepers eyeballing the bed can help but bed bugs are designed and programmed to hide by daylight, and so staff are unlikely to detect bed bugs with a cursory inspection unless cases are quite serious.

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]]> http://bedbugger.com/2008/04/04/hotel-housekeeping-staff-offered-25-bounty-per-head-on-bed-bugs/feed/ Allegations of bed bugs affect tourism, according to travel agent http://bedbugger.com/2007/12/11/links-for-2007-12-12/ http://bedbugger.com/2007/12/11/links-for-2007-12-12/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:24:35 +0000 Nobugsonme http://bedbugger.com/2007/12/11/links-for-2007-12-12/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Allegations of bed bugs affect tourism, according to travel agent", url: "http://bedbugger.com/2007/12/11/links-for-2007-12-12/" });]]>
  • Tropicana struggles to rebuild public image (note: allegations of bed bugs = bad for business)

    Travel agent elucidates how bed bugs are bad for hotel business: “One of my customers requested Tropicana. Knowing what I knew, I felt I must tell them. God forbid if they got there and there were bedbugs,” (Sis Butler, sales rep., Suncoast Tours).

    (tags: badforbusiness bedbugs travel tourism casino atlanticcity newjersey nj tropicana dec2007 2007 hotels)

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    ]]>     http://bedbugger.com/2007/12/11/links-for-2007-12-12/feed/     Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto http://bedbugger.com/2007/11/23/links-for-2007-11-24/ http://bedbugger.com/2007/11/23/links-for-2007-11-24/#comments Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:24:25 +0000 Nobugsonme http://bedbugger.com/2007/11/23/links-for-2007-11-24/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Bed bugs in homeless shelters, casinos, hotels, apartments: Waynesboro, Atlantic City, Greenpoint, Toronto", url: "http://bedbugger.com/2007/11/23/links-for-2007-11-24/" });]]>
  • Clip of the Day:

    TheStar.com | Public Health must declare bedbug war

    “The problem is spreading like flames all over town. Where are the people who will deal with this problem as if they were firefighters in front of a burning building?”

    Bedbuggers, Are you all reading Joe Fiorito’s articles in the Star? You really must. He has been doing the most amazing series of articles on people suffering from bed bugs in Toronto. Article after article as documented in recent news posts here.
    I wrote him a fan letter.

  • If you’re a tenant of Pistilli Realty’s beleaguered Astral apartments, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, you can join this new MySpace group and talk to your neighbors.
  • “A recent problem was an infestation of bedbugs, which Freeman said was remedied with donations of new beds and bedding.” This kind of lacadaisical reporting sends the wrong idea. New beds and bedding did not eliminate bed bugs from a homeless shelter.
  • “Now Tropicana will have to ‘get bedbugs headlines out of people’s minds,’ (William J. ) Yung (III) said.”
    There’s one way to get them out of our heads: make sure they’re not in any of the beds!
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    ]]>     http://bedbugger.com/2007/11/23/links-for-2007-11-24/feed/     Bed bugs in casino and senior apartments in New Jersey, Binghamton University (again) and another dust mite photo in the news http://bedbugger.com/2007/11/22/links-for-2007-11-23/ http://bedbugger.com/2007/11/22/links-for-2007-11-23/#comments Fri, 23 Nov 2007 01:26:17 +0000 Nobugsonme http://bedbugger.com/2007/11/22/links-for-2007-11-23/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Bed bugs in casino and senior apartments in New Jersey, Binghamton University (again) and another dust mite photo in the news", url: "http://bedbugger.com/2007/11/22/links-for-2007-11-23/" });]]>
  • Wesleyan Arms, a 60-unit senior apartment complex in Red Bank, NJ, has bed bugs. Monmouth County Health Officer Sidney B. Johnson said “bedbugs are not a health issue because they do not transmit disease but that the insects do qualify as pests.”
  • People are complaining about all kinds of alleged problems at the Tropicana in Atlantic City. Among them? Three hotel guests who filed complaints “were irate because their rooms were infested with bedbugs.”
  • Look at the title. Look at the photo. Look at the title. Look at the photo. Say it with me, now: bed bugs. Are. Not. Dust. Mites. Come on Aotearoa / New Zealand! Everyone has dust mites, but bed bugs are another matter.
  • Bed bugs are “not necessarily a widespread problem, just an increasing trend,” Diane O’Hora, supervising public health educator for Broome County, NY. A trend, like hobo bags, and that racoon eyeliner business, and palazzo pants. Yay! We’re trendy!
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