Travel

Holiday Travel & Bed Bugs: How to Avoid Bringing Them Home

Updated October 2026 · K9 Bed Bug Detection of East Tennessee

Holiday travel means hotel rooms. A night on the road to see family, or a few days near the airport before an early flight. Most of those stays end with nothing worse than a heavier suitcase.

Bed bugs ride along on luggage, clothing, and belongings, which is why hotels see so many of them. In a 2015 National Pest Management Association survey, 74% of pest professionals said they had found bed bugs in hotels and motels.

You cannot control who stayed in the room before you. You can control where your bag sits and what happens to it when you get home. Here is how to prevent bringing bed bugs home from a hotel.

At Check-In: Bags First, Then the Bed

Before you unpack, set your luggage on a hard surface away from the bed. A bathroom counter, a desk, or a tile floor all work while you take a quick look around.

The EPA's travel advice is short: check the mattress and headboard before sleeping, and inspect the luggage rack. Use your phone flashlight. Pull back the sheets at the head of the bed and look along the mattress seams, piping, and corners. Look at the gap between the headboard and the wall if you can see it without moving furniture.

You are looking for the same signs the EPA lists for any bed: live bugs, small dark spots, rusty or reddish stains, pale shed skins, and tiny eggs. Our cabin checklist walks through the full routine. A hotel room takes less time because there is usually one bed and one chair.

During Your Stay: Keep Luggage Off the Bed and Floor

Bed bugs hide close to where people sleep. The farther your bag stays from the bed, the less chance one finds its way inside.

Use the luggage rack. The EPA recommends using it to hold luggage when packing or unpacking, rather than setting your bag on the bed or floor. Check its straps and joints first.
Move the rack away from the bed. Keep luggage away from the bed and, if you can, away from the wall behind the headboard.
No rack? Use a hard surface. University of Kentucky entomologists suggest a stand, table, or other hard surface rather than the floor or another bed.
Keep the bag zipped. Take out what you need and close it again.
Bag your worn clothes. A plastic bag for dirty laundry keeps it contained and makes the trip to the washer easier later.

If You Find Something in Your Room

Take a clear photo, then tell the front desk. Keep your luggage closed and on a hard surface while you sort it out.

If the hotel moves you, ask for a room that is not next to, above, or below the one you are leaving. Check the new room the same way before you unpack.

Your own bed bug prevention starts here. Treat everything you brought into that room as possibly exposed when you get home.

When You Get Home: Do This Before You Unpack

The trip home is where most people undo a careful stay. The suitcase goes on the bed, clothes go back in the dresser, and the bag goes under the bed until the next trip. Change three habits instead.

Unpack away from bedrooms. A garage, laundry room, or porch is a better place to open your luggage than the bedroom. Texas A&M AgriLife suggests keeping luggage in the garage or on an outdoor porch when you arrive home.
Send clothes straight to the laundry. The EPA recommends unpacking directly into the washing machine. The heat of the dryer is what kills bed bugs. Washing alone generally does not. Texas A&M recommends 30 minutes on the hot setting. Do this for clean clothes that were in the bag too.
Store luggage away from bedrooms. The EPA says to keep suitcases somewhere like a basement or garage, and never under the bed.

Look over the empty suitcase before you put it away, especially seams, pockets, and zipper tracks. Bed bugs in luggage are hard to spot, so do not treat a clean-looking bag as proof. The dryer is the step that matters.

Signs You Brought Something Home

Bites are a poor guide. The CDC notes that bed bug bites affect each person differently, and some people show no marks at all. Marks can also come from other insects or skin conditions. The CDC also notes that bed bugs are not known to spread disease, so this is a nuisance problem, not an emergency.

Physical evidence is what counts: bugs, spotting, or shed skins along mattress seams and bed frames in the weeks after a trip. If you find something, photograph it and keep a sample in a sealed container if you can.

Want to Know for Sure?

If you are worried that something rode home with you, a K9 inspection can tell you whether bed bugs are present before you spend money on treatment. Our WDDO-certified dogs search by scent, so they can find small, early infestations that are easy to miss by eye.

We only do detection. We do not treat, so there is no conflict of interest in what we report. If we find bed bugs, you take our written findings to the pest control company of your choice. We serve Knoxville, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, and the rest of East Tennessee. See our home inspections, or read about Thanksgiving travel and bed bugs before the next trip.