On a Monday morning in June 2018, Adair’s Jeffrey and Suzanne Hoover awoke in their hotel room to find what they later described as hundreds of insect bites on their bodies and faces.
It wasn’t the first time. For weeks, the couple had been staying off and on at the Super 8 in Adair due to the damage their home suffered in a tornado. They are said to have found welts on her body, which she initially attributed to poison ivy infection. They sought treatment at a medical clinic and a VA hospital, and even made two trips to an emergency room.
This Monday, however, the situation was reportedly far worse than before.
West Des Moines attorney Jeff Lipman. (Photo courtesy of the Lipman Law Firm)
“When the Hoovers woke up,” their West Des Moines attorney, Jeffrey Lipman, later explained in court filings, “they were both covered in bites and found themselves in a bed full of bed bugs… Bed bug infestations were so widespread and severe that that even a cursory inspection would have revealed the infestation.”
Eventually, the Hoovers sued the Adair Hotel for damages related to their medical expenses and the clothes and luggage they had to throw away. After two years of litigation, the Super 8’s owner offered to settle the matter for $40,000. The case was dropped shortly afterwards.
The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals recently admitted that for the past eight years it has violated a state law that requires the agency to conduct routine inspections of every Iowa hotel at least every two years.
In 2014, the department said it conducted an internal “risk assessment” and decided to stop conducting routine inspections at hotels. Since then, the state agency has only inspected Iowa’s 700 hotels and motels when a complaint is made or when there is a change of ownership.
Some of the 13 cities and counties with which the state contracts to conduct various types of inspections have chosen to proceed with routine hotel inspections, but DIA, which oversees most Iowa hotels, has not. In order to become compliant again, DIA plans to have the regulations changed to eliminate the statutory requirement for routine inspections.
Lipman, a bed bug case specialist, says consumers are not well served by DIA’s decisions.
He says he understands that state inspectors don’t have the time or resources to conduct thorough room-by-room inspections for bed bugs in all hotels while enforcing other non-pest related regulations. But getting rid of routine inspections is not the solution, he says.
According to Lipman, hotel inspectors should take a similar approach to inspectors at healthcare facilities, where regulators conduct annual inspections to ensure all necessary policies and protocols are in place and being followed.
“Do hotels call pest control companies immediately after a problem is reported?” asks Lipmann. “Are you locking the room? Do they apply treatments supplied by pest control companies or do they treat themselves with their own staff?”
Jessica Dunker of the Iowa Hotel and Lodging Association. (Photo courtesy of the organization.)
Jessica Dunker of the Iowa Hotel and Lodging Association said she was “not aware of any specific health issues related to the hospitality industry” in Iowa. And when asked about bed bugs, she told the Iowa Capital Dispatch, “Bed bugs, yes, it’s a terrible inconvenience and you’re very unhappy,” but, she added, it’s more of a cleanliness issue than a health issue.
“That’s ignorance,” says Lipman of Dunker’s assessment. “Bed bugs do not transmit disease, but they are recognized as a public health problem. They basically suck blood out of people and cause these massive welts, and sometimes people get skin irritations and scars. I mean, these things come out sometimes, 50 to 100 bugs at a time – and they start feeding on people and they leave these grotesque marks on their bodies.
“And they have nothing to do with cleanliness. The Waldorf Astoria had bed bugs… The bugs are attracted to the C02 on your breath and they are attracted to blood. You don’t want junk. you want blood people blood. That is what they are here for and nothing else.”
He says the cases he handles are so serious that hotel cleaning staff should have uncovered the infestation through regular inspections. Had that happened, and had management taken those rooms and the rooms closest to them out of service, his customers’ injuries could have been avoided, he says.
Ottumwa Hotel sued over bed bugs
Part of the problem with complaint-driven inspections, Lipman says, is that by the time a complaint is filed with the state, the damage is already done. And if hotel staff have already taken steps to eradicate bugs in the complaining guest’s room, by the time the inspectors show up, the bugs may have settled in other rooms that haven’t been inspected.
“We’re going to have hotels that say, ‘Oh, we don’t have bed bugs,’ but then we have customers who have photos of bed bugs and photos that show they’ve been bitten 50 times. And then DIA says, ‘We didn’t see any bed bugs.’”
Lipman says that in Iowa, it’s an easy offense for hotels to self-treat bed bugs with chemicals, but some hotel operators will occasionally cut corners and try to avoid hiring a licensed exterminator.
He says there is now green technology that uses non-toxic chemicals to repel bed bugs, but hotels with a history of infestations need to take a proactive approach, working on both prevention and eradication. There aren’t enough hotels taking this step, says Lipman.
After the Lexington Inn & Suites in Ottumwa was sued over an alleged bed bug infestation, the owner, Belvant Patel, testified in affidavit that he had no training in bed bug detection, no training in eradication, and that he was more concerned treatment taken care of than use the exterminator contracted by the company.
He also testified that he kept no records documenting which rooms had a history of infestations and no records of bed bug complaints.
One of the Lexington Inn’s guests, Dustin Delehoy, sued the hotel in September 2019. Delehoy claimed he stayed at the hotel for over four days in April 2019 after traveling to Ottumwa from Illinois to attend some of his son’s baseball games.
After his first night in room 218 at the Lexington Suites, Delehoy reportedly woke up to find three bites on his hand. After his second night in the room, he reportedly woke up to find more bites on his arm and neck.
He showed the bites to the hotel staff and asked for another room. He was then moved to a room across the hall but reportedly woke up the next day with more bites on most of his body – including his back, neck, arms, stomach and one foot. A manager said she would speak to the owner about a refund, which Delehoy said he never received.
Days later, Delehoy claimed, he saw a dermatologist to assess the bites and was prescribed a topical cream, prednisone, and Benadryl.
Delehoy’s lawsuit against the hotel was settled out of court in July.
About bed bugs
Bed bugs have a lifespan of three months to a year, but they can reproduce quickly as a female bed bug can lay 300 to 500 eggs in her lifetime. The bugs draw blood as needed, consuming up to 8 milligrams during a single bite that can last up to 12 minutes.
When biting, the beetles deploy skin-penetrating stylets in their mouths. The first stylet carries the bug’s saliva into the bite wound to prevent the blood from clotting. The second stylet carries the blood from the human host into the beetle.
The bugs do not transmit diseases, and in most cases the effects of bed bug bites are limited to skin irritation, itching that can last for several days, and small, fluid-filled skin formations.
In many cases, the primary damage they do is financial. Because the bugs can be carried back to a person’s home from hotels and other locations, the victim may suffer losses related to extermination services, medical treatment, and loss of clothing, bedding, or furniture that becomes infested.
Examination of hotel rooms for bed bugs
The Environmental Protection Agency and Consumer Reports has these tips for hotel guests who want to avoid bed bug problems:
Baggage: When you first enter a hotel room, place your luggage on a raised luggage rack or in the bathroom where bed bugs have little chance of hiding while you inspect the room. You may wish to pack large plastic garbage bags to store your luggage in during your stay.
Bedding: Pull back the sheets and blankets and check the mattress and box spring seams for bugs, particularly at the head of the bed. Adults, nymphs and eggs are tiny but visible to the naked eye. Look for exoskeletons, or “skins,” and dark, rust-colored stains on the linens. Bed bugs are tiny, but you can see them with the naked eye. The bugs can also be smelled, with an odor sometimes described as an obnoxious-sweet raspberry smell.
Furniture: Check upholstered furniture within 20 feet of the bed, especially along the fabric seams.
Walls: Because the bugs are usually no larger than the width of a credit card, they can congregate at cracks and seams in headboards, baseboards, and wall outlets that are within 20 feet of a bed.
Move: If you find signs of bed bugs, ask to be moved to a new room – preferably another area of the building. When you get home, dry your travel clothes in a hot dryer for up to 30 minutes.
Complaints: If you would like to make a hotel-related complaint with the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, go to: DIA Contact Form. From there you can write a complaint describing the problem and upload any photos you took to support your complaint.
