If you find bed bugs in a hotel room, put your case in the bath, photograph what you see, and tell the hotel straight away. Ask for another room. Which? says you should be offered one, or a refund if none is available. UK law does not turn every sighting into an automatic full refund. Wash affected clothes at 60C, dry them on hot, and check the case before it comes indoors.
- Put the case in the bath or shower, photograph the insect or the spots, and tell the hotel before you unpack any further.
- Ask for another room. Which? says that is what you should be offered, or a refund if the hotel has nowhere else. The hotel bears the necessary cost of doing the service again. That is not a right to book any hotel you like and send the bill.
- A price reduction can be the whole amount, and it is not automatic. Where a refund is due under the Act, the 14 days start on the day the hotel agrees you are entitled to it.
- Wash affected bedding and clothes at 60C and tumble-dry them on hot for at least 30 minutes. Freeze anything you cannot wash, in a sealed bag, for two to three weeks.
- Tell the council for the hotel's area if the problem is left unresolved. That report is not a guaranteed inspection, and it does not pay your refund.
What should you do in the room first?
Keep the case off the bed. Which?, in its 3 March 2026 guide, says to put luggage in the bath or shower while you look, because a hard surface is a poor place for the insects to climb aboard. Then look at the mattress seams, the headboard and the bed frame. Photograph insects, spots or bites before anyone strips the room, and tell the hotel the same day.
A bite on its own is a weak clue. The NHS says adults are around 5mm long and can be dark yellow, red or brown. Look for blood on the sheets, and for small brown marks on the bedding or the furniture. The insects can hide in the bed frame, the mattress, clothes, furniture, behind pictures and under loose wallpaper. If you only have an itch, say that. Do not describe a bite as a confirmed insect you never saw.
Does the hotel have to move you?
Ask for another room, and do not tell the desk that every hotel in the UK must move you the moment one insect is found. No bed-bug rule of that kind is in the Consumer Rights Act 2015. What the Act does say is that a service has to be performed with reasonable care and skill. If it is not, you can require the trader to do the service again, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience, unless putting it right is impossible.
Section 55 also says the trader bears the necessary costs of that repeat performance, including labour and materials. A replacement room in the same hotel, at no extra charge, is the practical shape of that. The section does not say you may book a different hotel and recover that spend automatically. Which? puts the ask in plainer words: another room, or your money back when the hotel has no other room. That is Which?'s advice, not a sentence from the Act.
Which? also says UK hotels have to take reasonable steps to keep guests safe, and gives an infested bed as an example. That page does not pin the sentence on the Consumer Rights Act. The visitor-safety duty in the Occupiers' Liability Act 1957 is a separate rule, and that Act does not extend to Scotland. Do not treat Which?'s safety line as the test for a refund.
If the hotel says it has no other room, the next question is the money, not a promise that a council will invent a bed for you. A hotel that simply has no room left is a different problem, covered in what you are owed when a hotel says it has no room.
| What you found | What to ask for |
|---|---|
| You can show an insect, or blood spots and brown marks, and the hotel has another room | Another room, with the hotel bearing the necessary cost of putting the service right. Keep the photographs. |
| The hotel cannot put you in a suitable room | A price reduction. It can be the full amount where that is appropriate. It is not automatic from one sighting. |
| The room was part of a package, and a significant part of the trip cannot be provided | Suitable alternative arrangements from the organiser, at no extra cost, of equivalent or higher quality where possible. |
| The hotel will not deal with it | A written complaint, then the council for that hotel's area. The council does not pay the refund. |
When can you get money back?
Not on the strength of the sighting alone. Section 56 says the reduction is an appropriate amount, and that amount may, where appropriate, be the full price. If you can also require repeat performance, you get the reduction only when repeat performance is impossible, or you required it and the trader did not provide it within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience.
Where a refund is due under that section, it has to be given without undue delay, and in any event within 14 days beginning on the day the trader agrees you are entitled to it. It goes back by the same means of payment unless you expressly agree otherwise, and the trader must not charge a fee for it. Do not count those 14 days from the moment you saw the insect, or from checkout. The clock in that section starts when the trader agrees the refund is yours.
Get the hotel to say, in the booking messages, what it will do about the room and the bill. A written yes is much easier to rely on than a conversation at the desk.
Laundry, a luggage treatment and a pest-control visit at home are a different question. Nothing in section 55 prices those bills. The section is about the cost of doing the hotel service again. Which? says the strength of a claim depends on how badly you were bitten and whether the insects travelled home, including the cost of calling out pest control. Keep the receipts and ask. Do not tell yourself the hotel has to pay them.
Read the confirmation before you decide who to chase. For a room that is not part of a package, complain to the hotel. For a package, complain to the organiser. Which? says a booking with a foreign hotel is likely to follow that country's law. Do not assume every booking website owes you the refund. If the hotel later takes money from your card for stains or a treatment, that is a separate argument, explained in what to do when a hotel charges your card for damage after you leave.
What changes if the room was part of a package?
Tell the organiser without undue delay. Regulation 15 of the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 makes the organiser responsible for the travel services in the package. If the organiser cannot provide a significant proportion of those services as agreed, it must offer suitable alternative arrangements at no extra cost, where possible of equivalent or higher quality.
A lower-quality alternative has to come with an appropriate price reduction. You may reject the offer only if it is not comparable with what was agreed, or the reduction is inadequate. One insect that the hotel can replace with a suitable room is not, by itself, that “significant proportion” test. Where the organiser refuses to put the problem right, or you need an immediate remedy, the regulation also allows you to sort it and claim the necessary expenses. A change made to these regulations in 2026 does not take effect until 6 April 2027, so it does not alter a package you are on now.
How do you keep them out of the house?
If you already know the room had them, leave the case and the clothes in the bath, or outside, until you have looked through them. The NHS says those items should not come indoors unchecked.
For bedding and clothes that were affected, wash them at 60C, then run a hot tumble dryer for at least 30 minutes. That pairing is the NHS instruction. Anything you cannot wash goes into a plastic bag in the freezer for two to three weeks. The NHS also says these insects are very difficult to clear on your own, and that you should contact your council or a pest-control service if you think they are now in your home.
A hot wash on its own is not the instruction to follow. Use the NHS pair: 60C, then a hot tumble dry for at least 30 minutes. Do not shorten the freezer time to a few days.
Who else can you tell?
Start with the hotel, and with the organiser if the room was in a package. If that does not deal with an infestation, report it to the council for the area where the hotel is, through that council's environmental health, public protection or hotel-complaint route. The NHS points people who think they have bed bugs to their council or a pest-control service. A complaint is assessed. It is not a guaranteed visit.
In England and Wales, once a local authority is satisfied that premises are verminous, section 83 of the Public Health Act 1936 requires it to give notice requiring the vermin to be dealt with. That is the authority being satisfied, not a guest's right to an inspection or a refund. Blackpool's hotel-complaints page says a customer-service or cleanliness complaint may not produce action, and that money claims go to Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer service. Use that as a picture of the split, not as a national script.
GOV.UK sends consumer advice to Citizens Advice in England and Wales, Advice Direct Scotland in Scotland, and Consumerline in Northern Ireland. Those services can refer a complaint to Trading Standards, who may investigate. They do not take the case for you, and they do not pay the bill. The Health and Safety Executive's page on who enforces workplace safety at hotels is not a bed-bug form, and it will not recover your money.
What do the bites actually mean?
Bites often itch. The NHS says they do not usually lead to any other health problem. A severe allergic reaction is possible, and it is rare. Most bites settle within about a week. A clean damp cloth helps, and you should not scratch. A pharmacist may suggest hydrocortisone cream or an antihistamine. If you are pregnant, or the person bitten is under 10, ask a doctor before using that cream. See a GP if the bites stay very painful, swollen or itchy after the pharmacist's treatment, or if the pain or swelling is spreading.
Which? says the insects are not known to spread disease. The NHS page does not use that sentence. Use the NHS wording when you are following the NHS, and keep the disease line with Which?.
They are not a mark of a dirty hotel. The NHS says they are found in both clean and dirty places. Reports can peak in late summer or early autumn, and a heated building can stay active in colder months. A winter booking is not a reason to skip the check of the seams.
Photograph what you found, tell the hotel before you unpack, and keep the case out of the bedroom at home until you have looked through it. The refund argument is much harder if the only record left is a conversation nobody wrote down.
