# Fleas in a hotel room



## silverfox82 (Oct 22, 2009)

We had a 6AM flight out of JAX this morning and stayed at one of the well known chain hotels on the airport road. Wife killed a flea that was crawling on her leg but thought it might have jumped on her outside while bringing the luggage in. Went to bed and while dressing in the morning for the airport she finds 2 more which she kills and saves on a piece of paper. While checking out a few minutes later we showed him the fleas and he said he was sorry but it was a pet friendly hotel, all rooms!!!!! I assumed that all pet friendly hotels set aside certain rooms for pets much like smoking rooms, not so in this one. We are animal likers but what if a guest is allergic, could be a huge problem and there was no indication that all of the rooms might have been recently occupied by a cat or dog. Has anyone else ever heard of this?


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## laurac260 (Oct 22, 2009)

silverfox82 said:


> We had a 6AM flight out of JAX this morning and stayed at one of the well known chain hotels on the airport road. Wife killed a flea that was crawling on her leg but thought it might have jumped on her outside while bringing the luggage in. Went to bed and while dressing in the morning for the airport she finds 2 more which she kills and saves on a piece of paper. While checking out a few minutes later we showed him the fleas and he said he was sorry but it was a pet friendly hotel, all rooms!!!!! I assumed that all pet friendly hotels set aside certain rooms for pets much like smoking rooms, not so in this one. We are animal likers but what if a guest is allergic, could be a huge problem and there was no indication that all of the rooms might have been recently occupied by a cat or dog. Has anyone else ever heard of this?



As a former hotelier, I always thought pet friendly hotels were a bad idea, for all the reasons you mentioned.  This just proves it.  Leave fluffy at home!  Now, as a traveler, I will be sure to make sure the hotel I stay at is not pet friendly before booking!


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## SueDonJ (Oct 22, 2009)

I thought the same thing, that certain rooms were set aside for pets and their owners.  One of the deluxe hotels in Boston (Four Seasons, maybe?) is pet-friendly but the rooms they've set aside have fancy-schmancy brass plaques with dog and cat engravings on them.

But even if any pet can stay in any room, I would think that a pet-friendly hotel would do routine flea-bombing and similar maintenance.  That's just good hygiene, isn't it?  Yuck if it isn't!  I know that if I made a habit of traveling with my pet, I'd stay far FAR away from any hotel that had complaints about fleas, and it's for sure those complaints would come up in a google search for "pet friendly lodging."


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## laurac260 (Oct 22, 2009)

as the parent of an asthmatic, who is also very allergic to dogs, smoking rooms and pet friendly rooms fall into the same category.  A must avoid!


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## Eli Mairs (Oct 22, 2009)

Are you sure that it wasn't bed bugs? 

Bed bugs are becoming an epidemic in apartment buildings and even hotels. 

If you take them home, they are very hard to get rid of.


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## laurac260 (Oct 22, 2009)

Eli Mairs said:


> Are you sure that it wasn't bed bugs?
> 
> Bed bugs are becoming an epidemic in apartment buildings and even hotels.
> 
> If you take them home, they are very hard to get rid of.



I agree about bed bugs, I've read alot about them and they are almost impossible to get rid of, but I doubt she'd be able to pick one up.  They are almost microscopic.


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## Eli Mairs (Oct 22, 2009)

laurac260 said:


> I agree about bed bugs, I've read alot about them and they are almost impossible to get rid of, but I doubt she'd be able to pick one up.  They are almost microscopic.



The adults are not microscopic. They are black, about the size of a flea. The babies are very small and translucent. The eggs are almost microscopic.

The disturbing thing is that bed bugs only have to eat (ie bite you) once a year, and in the meantime, they are laying thousands of eggs. 

It is wise to check your mattresses on a regular basis for evidence of bed bugs. It doesn't hurt to check hotel room mattresses either.

My job takes me into bedbug infested apartments. We are going to be provided with disposable booties (which hasn't happened yet), and we don't sit on any upholstered furniture.

One of my co-workers brought bedbugs home with her, and she spent $20,000 to have them removed. They had to tear out her walls, because they were everywhere.  She has a lawsuit against our employer to compensate her for these expenses.


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## vacationhopeful (Oct 22, 2009)

Bedbugs is also my bet.

*Fleas are much more annoying*, as if you have 1, you have 1,000 jumping on you.  I first encountered bedbugs after leaving a hotel in Quebec in 1976.  My friends and I were driving south on the NY Thruway when I noticed them scratching their heads and I had been also scratching my head around the ears.  Lumps where the ears lay against the head were on our heads.  Stopped, opened truck and searched luggage - found little black specks crawling on the white tee shirts.

Yes, visible.  Chemicals were brought at next exit, sprayed everywhere and nothing came into my house til after the laundrymat.  And more chemicals.

Fleas are easy to kill.  Bedbugs are not.  Kmart now sells plastic pillow covers which state they are effective against bedbugs.


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## geekette (Oct 22, 2009)

Just preventing the pets is not going to protect against fleas.  If the humans have a dog with fleas, they are likely taking those critters along with them, even if the furbabies stay home.


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## silverfox82 (Oct 23, 2009)

These were definately fleas in the carpet, not bedbugs, they hopped on her legs while walking across the room. Thinking at first they might be bedbugs we searched the bed for evidence which, if found, we would have been out of there in a second.


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## vacationhopeful (Oct 23, 2009)

Those do sound and feel like fleas ... you got lucky.


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## dioxide45 (Oct 23, 2009)

I would suspect flees also over bed bugs if it was a pet friendly hotel. While hotels may have bed bugs, they are very rarely seen. You will see signs of them (brown spots on the sheets and mattress) but you will probably never actually see them. They keep themselves hidden well when the lights are on and only come out at night to bite.


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## Liz Wolf-Spada (Oct 24, 2009)

Unfortunately, it isn't true that pets take their fleas with them. I have experienced this personally. Leaving just a few behind will lead to infestations of jumping and hungry fleas as the original host is now gone.
Liz


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