LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS – With New York City reopening to tourists this summer, travelers may want to avoid a Long Island City hotel, which according to a recent study poses the “highest” risk of bed bugs in the city this year.
The report, released earlier this month by Pest Strategies, identified the top 10 hotels most likely to be bed bug hotspots in New York City this year, based on reviews from multiple platforms. In determining the hotels with the highest bed bug risk this year, Pest Strategies considered the hotel’s total number of bed bug complaints, the frequency of complaints over the past two years, and the latest credible rating.
Topping the list this year is the Queens County Inn and Suites Long Island City at 40-34 Crescent Street, which has received an average of three bed bug complaints a year since 2010 – much more than the average NYC hotel receives, according to Pest Strategies only one complaint per year.
The hotel was placed high on Pest Strategies’ list this year due to its high bed bug counts and the number of reviews it has received in recent years.
Of the 36 complaints the Long Island City hotel has received from Tripadvisor, Bed Bug Reports, and Bedbug Registry since 2004, seven were reported in the roughly two-year period between January 2018 and February 2020 – most recently including a credible bed bug complaint in January last Year.
However, Pest Strategies said the Queens Country Inn and Suites had made “significant improvements” since 2012 and 2015, when the hotel received six complaints a year.
When it comes to Pest Strategies’ list of NYC hotels with the worst bed bug reputations of all time (or since 2004), the Queens Country Inn and Suites ranks third behind two Manhattan hotels.
And sadly, the Long Island City Hotel isn’t the only hotel in the northwest on Pest Strategies’ lists.
The La Quinta Inn by Wyndham Queens, a hotel on Queens Boulevard that calls itself an airport hotel due to its proximity to La Guardia Airport, was ranked 8th on this year’s list of the top 10 hotels with the highest bed bug risk.
But in general, Pest Strategies noted that Manhattan hotels rank first in terms of bed bug risk.
The website reported that approximately 80 percent of hotels with one or more bed bug ratings as of 2016 are in Manhattan and 57.8 percent are within a quarter of a mile from Times Square.
Read the full report – including ways to identify bed bugs – here.
