Help! Bed bugs in hotel. How do we deal with the hotel?

Even if you discussed this issue with whatever government agency might be concerned with ensuring minimum health standards are in place, how would that help you tonight? It would be a huge waste of time IMO. It's possible, but how do you know the other room is also infested? Can you take a look first – look under mattress and along mattress seams, check the bedding, look at crevices around bed, wall, night stand. See if there are any blood stains anywhere. How about logging on to tripadvsior – search for several of the top-rated B&Bs for Amsterdam. If you see a 4.5 or 5 star place with what you consider to be legitimate reviews and there's no mention of bed bugs, call and inquire about a vacancy. Inspect the bed before you agree to stay there. Just a thought. BTW, even the best hotels in the world can get bed bugs...it's just the way it is in 2011.

If I spotted bed bugs in any hotel I was staying at I'd check out immediately. Head to the Ibis Hotel above Centraal Station it's the largest hotel in the city, I'd be surprised if they were completely sold-out.

It is possible the second room is not infected? Is it a distance away from the first room? Have you inspected? Pull the bed out from the wall and or headboard (if you have a flashlight that is helpful) and pull back the sheets. Look for black flecks, insect body parts, etc., along the corners, staples, along the seams of the mattress, on the headboard. If there are signs of infestation, show the hotel management-they should move you immediately. In the future, inspect first thing. Do not store your luggage on the floor.
Could they have gotten into your luggage? If you can, put all your stuff in your luggage in large plastic ziplock bags. If you are infested, when you get home, you will want to leave your luggage in your garage or someplace until you are able to launder everything in extremely hot water - and contact a professional. It does not matter how many stars a hotel has, all are prone to bed bugs. If you have some in your luggage, you may be transmitting the buggers yourself. Hotel management should be jumping on the situation to avoid further infestation but also leaving their reputation intact- People/Hotels don't want to talk about their own infestations. I learned that my well-to-do friend's were infected after a stay in a 4 or 5 star hotel in Paris, so I've started inspecting my rooms now routinely. There are some good websites for inspections and with remedies (NYCity, as I recall). Hope you are able to sleep tight tonight . . . .

If it's not too late, DON'T PUT YOUR LUGGAGE ON THE FLOOR. Bed bugs hitching a ride in your luggage is the major reason they spread from one hotel to the next. Once you discover bed bugs, your luggage has probably already picked them up and become a "carrier". One person here suggested the bath tub. I usually go for top of the dresser or on a shelf in the cubboard.

Any chance you can post the name of the three star hotel? That's nasty!

Hi all, thank you so much for all your advice. we could not get reservations elsewhere that night and had to stay there. we opted for a different room but not trusting that it is safe, we ended up layering the bed with large plastic sheets and placed fresh sheets from the management. kept all our luggage on the tables and nothing on the floor. i could not sleep a wink that night knowing where we were sleeping. horrible experience. the next morning, we called management, owner and everyone possible and threatened to go to the local health office in the municipality and call on the local school of public health to help us. knowing that we meant business, the management quickly refunded our money but that will still not stop me from posting as many reviews as possible on as many sites as possible so no one ever faces this situation again. it was THE most horrendous experience of our vacation. Again, thank you all for all your advice. I am so glad we had this forum to turn to. Thanks!

Good grief. I need the name of that hotel because we are headed to Amsterdam!!!

The name of the hotel is Delta Hotel, on Damarck Street. Avoid it like the plague!

Let's all agree that we do not want bedbugs in our hotels. But just what is a hotel proprietor to do? Get hold of some old DDT and spray with abandon? Every new guest is a new potential for infestation. You, the traveler, is the vector that brings in the pest. Maybe hotels will start having guests greeted by a bedbug sniffing beagle, and if your luggage doesn't pass, it's out on the street for you. How about a new concept in hotel-a pod hotel that is really just a pod. All molded plastic, no mattress or bedding. You bring your own, and when you check out, the pod is self cleaned just like public toilets in Paris.

^^^ I agree with Karen 100%. SS to say you are overreacting would be a gross understatement. Bedbugs happen. Nobody wants them but there is nothing a hotel owner can do other than eradicated them once they are reported. Sounds like that is what the hotel did in this case.

^^^ Yes, I would say the same thing about a motel 6 in the USA. And for the record Europe is my fifth favorite continent.

Why is everybody picking on Murfreesboro, and Arkansas? That's not fair!!

There isn't a hotel anywhere that is safe from bed bugs. Any traveler can bring them into any hotel on any continent through no fault of the traveler or the hotel. So I think it's a little extreme and unfair to try to destroy the reputation of a hotel that has bed bugs in one room. I'm not defending this hotel; I know nothing about it. And I'm not defending the entire continent of Europe. I'm just saying the OP might be a little more understanding of the reality of bed bugs and the difficulty that hotels have trying to control it.