A Travelodge guest woke up with more than 100 bed bug bites after one night in its Cambridge hotel.
Hannah Stephenson, 31, suffered the bites after staying in the city’s Travelodge on July 26, waking up the next day with itchy red lumps across her body and blood spots on the bedding.
Ms Stephenson, from Bassingbourn, South Cambridgeshire, had been out with friends in the city and booked a one-night stay at the Newmarket Road hotel to save money rather than hire a taxi to travel home.
But she woke the next morning to a ‘horrible realisation’ that she had been bitten more than 100 times by bed bugs.
Ms Stephenson said she had a ‘lovely wholesome time’ of ‘sightseeing and pubs’ which had been ‘tarnished by these bed bug bites’.
‘It wasn’t until I saw the blood and the bugs that I realised what had happened,’ she said.
‘I woke up feeling itchy and I started to have lumps forming on my arms. When I got up, I saw spots of blood on the pillow and black dots. I looked closer and I actually saw a bug on the pillow.
‘I checked the bedding and there were more in the bedding. As the day went on more and more bites started to emerge.
Hannah Stephenson was left with itchy, red marks on her skin after staying in a Cambridge Travelodge
After staying one night in the hotel she said she had been left with more than 100 bites
‘I counted 37 on my left hand alone but there are too many to count, definitely more than 100, they’re really itchy.’
She said she was ‘horrified and shocked’ by the bites, which she ‘didn’t expect from a Travelodge, I always thought they were pretty reliable’.
Almost two weeks after her stay she said the swelling had gone down but her skin still looked as though she were suffering from chicken pox.
‘People have been horrified, they’ve said I look like I have a disease. Everyone is saying how bad it looks,’ she added, saying she now feels self-conscious and has stayed away from social events.
A Travelodge spokesman said: ‘We are deeply sorry for Ms Stephenson’s experience and how distressing an incident like this can be.’
Ms Stephenson said she felt ‘ignored’ when she first complained to the hotel and believed the company only contacted her because she posted pictures of the bites on TikTok.
‘I don’t think I would be at this point at the moment if I didn’t take it to TikTok,’ she said.
Travelodge said it was ‘deeply sorry’ for Ms Stephenson’s experience and offered her £2,000 in compensation
Ms Stephenson said she was left self-conscious and has stayed away from social events because of the bites
After living previously in Asia, Africa and South America without ever experiencing bed bugs, Ms Stephenson said she would ‘never expect this in Cambridge of all places’.
‘I am just hoping these bites will go as soon as possible and I will look normal and get on with my life,’ she said.
She has accepted £2,000 in compensation from Travelodge but said she hoped the company would be more vigilant against bed bugs in future.
According to the British Association of Dermatologists, bed bugs can be found ‘in the cleanest of homes’ and can be confused with other insects because they change colour at different stages of life.
Symptoms of bed bug bites can include a small spot of red blood, water-filled blisters, pus-filled spots and redness or swelling around the bite zone.
Bites usually heal within around a week but in rare cases a skin infection may need antibiotics.
Travelodge said customer safety was a ‘priority’ and it used ‘expert-led measures to prevent and manage pest issues’.
A spokesman said: ‘In the rare instance that an issue is reported in one of our hotels, we immediately take affected and surrounding rooms out of service for inspection and treatment by independent pest control experts.’
