They seem to be under control about as well as any pest can be, given the high visitor volume and transience at Las Vegas hotels. this site, devoted solely to bedbug sightings, chronicles six encounters in Las Vegas so far this year; the Orleans, at least, gets points from one traveler, who says staff "Took [bug] photo down to front desk and they immediately sent several people up and took a report. Heated all our belonging [sic] and moved us."
Vermin awareness on the Strip was at its peak in the 2007-08 period when the Culinary Union was at war with the Tropicana’s then-owner William J. Yung. Employees regularly leaked bedbug bulletins to the media, including a management-initiated ‘bring ‘em back alive’ policy, in which it offered bounties for employees who caught and turned in live bedbugs. (Dead ones didn’t qualify for the reward.) When the hotel turned over to new, union-friendly management, bedbugs ceased to be a hot-button issue.
Libraries, we've learned, are another favored hangout for bedbugs, often requiring the destruction of infected books. However, last year three University of Nevada Las Vegas students -- Jack Cheney, Nicole Ramos, and Vachara Maneeraj – devised a solar-powered book-return depository that purges the pests and leaves texts intact. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "The result was an insulated wooden black box with a Plexiglas top that barbecues the bugs … If a bed bug tries to crawl out of a book, it will fall through the grill into a powdery abrasive earth mixture, which will stick to the bug and slice up its exoskeleton, ensuring its demise." Total cost: $400.
Getting back to the hotel industry, Boyd Gaming spokesman David Strow (whose company owns the Orleans) says bedbugs are "something that everybody has to address. It affects hotels in every single neighborhood in every single city." That being said, he notes that Boyd’s remediation program has received high marks from the Southern Nevada Health District. Here’s how it works …
The affected room is closed immediately. If the in-house exterminator finds evidence of bedbugs, the rooms on each side – as well as above and below – are also closed, then searched. "You keep going [outward] until you don’t find any issues," Strow reports, adding that the rooms are re-inspected before being reopened.
"You have to be constantly vigilant, so we’ve trained all of our staff to look for the bugs themselves," Strow says, as well as for the telltale ‘inkspots’ they leave in their trail. Customers are also encouraged to contact management immediately if they have insect issues, and to have their luggage and its contents heated to 120 degrees, which kills the nasty little critters (and their larvae).
MGM Resorts International arguably takes an even more proactive approach at its hotels (quite an undertaking when you consider that Aria has 4,000 rooms alone). Says MGM spokeswoman Yvette Monet, "we do regular inspections, mattress rotation and housekeeper training. In the event a bug is suspected, Ecolab comes in. Considering the number of [international] visitors we have, and the number of rooms we have, we do a pretty good job managing it."
One of our editors says he’s stayed at a wide variety of Sin City hotels and never encountered either a bedbug or its bite. If all major Las Vegas hotel companies remain as vigilant as Boyd/MGM Mirage, we can reasonably assure you of a bedbug-free stay.
