Are fancy hotels less likely to have bedbugs than cheap hotels in the United States?

Question

This week I’m staying in a cheap hotel (eg, Motel 6) and a fancy hotel (eg, Hilton). A friend of mine commented that staying at a cheap hotel makes it more likely to encounter bed bugs. Are they correct? Are fancy hotels less likely to have bedbugs than cheap hotels in the United States?

Answer 1

You can check the specific hotels on https://www.bedbugreports.com/

I checked Boston, MA and there were a total number of 9 reports spanning 8 years. Given that Boston has almost 20,000 hotel rooms it's safe to conclude that infestations are quite rare and bed bugs seems to be overhyped by the media at the moment.

FWIW the list for Boston included both high end and budget hotels but the numbers are way too small to do any meaningful statistics.

Again, this feels like hype to me. I've stayed 100s of nights in hotels all over the world in place that ranged from a health hazard to super expensive world class hotels. We've seen all types of insects, mosquitos, cockroaches (we named a rather charming one "lucky" and made it our pet), mold, a rotten wood floors, any type of dirt, grime and stains imaginable but I don't recall a single bed bug incitent.