Do you frequently travel, you could be a carrier of these little critters, all to many times when people travel or have friends just pop in to visit them at a hotel or motel a guest could be bringing along friends with them. Of course the first thought is that the hotel or motel is bed bug infested, in many cases this is could not be further from the truth as lodging facilities do not breed these little beasts they are brought in and usually unknown to their carriers.
First before you even hop into the bed slowly pull down the sheets on the beds, Bed bugs in the egg form will look like pepper corns, very small black or brown and round, you may see these littering the bed which could be infestation or it just could be pepper and the housekeeping never changed the sheets.
Second look at the perimeter of the bed and the bed rails and under the bed pad, more than likely if you do not see any signs here there is not an infestation. Then lets say you wake up to something crawling on you and you find one or two on the sheet, upon checking the bed you find no more. Guess what, you guessed it you brought them in or if you had a guest they brought them in.
Why? First off if you only see a couple large bugs and do not find any others in the places mentioned above you need to understand the larger bugs are a couple weeks old and this age group are travelers and could have got in your shoes, socks, under your belt, shirt, etc. and were brought in by you and you could have picked them up the last place you stayed or while visiting a friend. Of course it is important to let management no about this as the room should be sprayed in case any eggs were laid but in all likely hood this is not an infestation.
Over the years I have come to know quite a bit about these pesky little critters, also that many people are quick to blame lodging owners when they are the problem. As lodging owners become more aware of how tell the extent of their problem they will be better able to deal with the problem.
Infestations need to be dealt with by using heat, Why! Those pesky critters can get into the bed through openings or in any furniture and in order to get the inside area hot enough to kill the bed bugs you need to heat long term, I would suggest 16-20 hours over 130 degrees so the inside temp of the furniture is over 113 degrees should be adequate. There are many systems out there for sale capable of doing this and every property should have one to immediately take care of any problems.
If you have a guest that found one and upon inspections of the areas outlined above you find no signs of any additional bugs you can just spray your room and clean all bedding immediately, when removing bedding from room make sure you put in plastic bag and only remove into a washer, wash in hot water to kill all bugs. Do not put these sheets into a pile of other laundry or you could start an infestation.
Where Bed bugs hide on you? Under your belt, in your shoes, under your collar of a shirt, in your socks, plus any place where it may be dark.
Case in point? A couple years ago I had a guest come into register for a room, as he was registering I noticed a red mark on his neck so I politely asked where he stayed the prior night, he answered that he stayed at a friends house in the area. In turn I asked him to step outside as I thought the red mark on his neck was a bed bug bite. My thought was proven to be reality when I asked him to remove his shoes only to find a couple in his shoes, I politely informed him that I could not rent him a room so he hopped in his car and went to another property and spent the night. True Story!
The sad thing is today you have to be careful and do your due diligence on checking beds prior to using them, following the instructions listed above and remember that if you only have one or two that show up under the sheets the next morning and you find no others there is a good chance that you brought them in on your clothes and picked them up somewhere else.