2011-03-27 18:26:49
Holiday Inn Express WOODSTOCK-SHENANDOAH VALLEY
1130 MOTEL DRIVE
WOODSTOCK, VA
Room Number: 303
Bedbugs, Bedbugs, Bedbugs. Got that creepy-crawly feeling yet? Try having them in your bed, on your clothes...biting you as you sleep. Skin crawling now? Let’s get one thing clear at the start: I’m not going to say that the Holiday Inn Express in Woodstock, Virginia has a bedbug infestation. I’m not going to say that. I’m just going to tell you what happened during and after our stay at that hotel. So don’t get the idea they have or ever have had bedbugs there. If you don’t believe me just ask the hotel’s manager. This story began the second weekend in January, when my wife, my son and I spent three nights at the Holiday Inn Express in Woodstock, Virginia. We had traveled to the area to check out the military schools there. The morning after our first night in the hotel, my son (who slept in the pullout) woke with three or four welts on his left forearm. I had a couple on my abdomen. My wife, at this point was bite, err, welt free. After the second and third nights, my son and I each had a few more, and my wife, just a couple, but nothing alarming. Maybe a change in the water; something we ate. But the notion that blood-thirsty critters could be injecting us with an anesthesia and then feasting on us as we slept never crossed our minds, though I wish I could say the same thing about our bodies. We had seen a few news reports about bedbug infestations in hotels and college dormitories several months before this trip, but we hadn’t paid much attention to it; nor had we really understood what it meant. That was our first mistake. Our other mistake was relying upon an assumption of cleanliness and buglessness about the hotel in which we would stay. Though it’s an assumption most of us rely upon to make staying in public houses endurable, it’s one we have permanently discarded (I strongly advise you do the same), along with our mattress, box springs and a whole lot of other things. But back to the story. Ten days after we returned home, all three of us woke one morning with multiple welts on us, mostly on the abdomen and back. Though the possibility of bedbugs had crawled into my mind that morning, for one more day I desperately clung to the possibility that it might be a rash caused by the chemicals in our new hot tub. But twenty-four hours later, (another night as the main course on the bedbug buffet), and after we did some research, freaked out, felt disgusted, and got angry, we finally said out loud the word “bedbug.” Then we called Terminix. Other than confirming our most disgusting fears, Terminix was great. They came to the house almost immediately. When they for certain established the presence of bedbugs, we again freaked out, felt disgusted and got angry. But they assured us they could eradicate the pests without our having to burn down the house or discard every piece of clothing and furniture. Within forty-five minutes of the arrival of Terminix we had placed into twenty-five large garbage bags every item of clothing, bedding, and laundry that might have come in contact with the clothing or suitcases we had used when we traveled. Terminix recommended, and we complied, that we have the carpets and furniture steam cleaned. Our shoes were okay, though.. The dogs spent four days at the kennel to avoid the chemicals and bedbugs. During the week after the fumigation, we slept either on the floor or on sofas in unaffected rooms. We wore out our American Express card. Forty-two hundred dollars for dry cleaning. Twenty-two hundred dollars for a new mattress and box springs. One thousand dollars for Terminix and carpet/furniture cleaning. Five hundred dollars for new clothes while everything was being cleaned, weeks of having our lives disrupted, and days and nights of feeling as though our home was under siege by a tiny unseen army. After all the aggravation, and after having paid out around $8000, when teleponed the manager, the friendly Holiday Inn Express manage, he said the best he could offer was one night’s compensation: $130. During my first telephone call to the manager, (he insisted I call him the more friendly “KP”), he was very cordial and understanding as we discussed “the problem,” as he continually referred to it. He took my concerns very seriously and told me that a local pest control company would inspect the room and if any bedbugs were found that he would contact the hotel’s insurance company about my claim. “What a nice guy,” I thought. I felt good about calling him KP. He even called me a couple of days later to let me know that the pest control company representative had been delayed but would be doing the inspection in a few days. About a week later, KP, called to tell me the results of the inspection. No bedbugs and no evidence of them were found. And, KP said, there had been no other complaints other than mine. He was baffled, phlegmatically so, by what had happened to us. The source of the bites, err, welts, was a mystery. He suggested maybe we had gone to the movies (It’s a little known fact that bedbugs love action movies (the blood) and stale popcorn) and we had picked them up there. I explained to him we hadn’t been to the movies, (although we had driven by a movie theatre in the area) or any other similar public venue. He was perplexed as to the source of the bugs in our home but was quite sure they weren’t from his hotel. I explained to him that we had been bitten by something when we slept in his hotel, that we hadn’t been in contact with any other bedding or laundry and that our only other excursion had been to the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington, D.C., not really a likely source. He had no explanation for the origin of “the problem,” but again assured me that he would look into my concerns and that the matter would be turned over to his insurance company. Sure enough, a few days later an insurance investigator called and questioned me about the incident. He concluded the call by saying he would contact the Holiday Inn with his findings and recommendation. Several days later I received a letter from the insurance company stating that the claim had been denied because there weren’t any bedbugs at the hotel. My first thought was “Yep, for sure, because they had all crept into our suitcases and come to our house.” And then I thought, since we’re so close to Washington, DC, I wonder if they’ve checked for tiny bloodsucking politicians. Or maybe nanovampires. I’ll bet KP hadn’t thought of those explanations. One of the first things the Terminix technician asked was if we had traveled recently. “Of course,” I said, “To the Holiday Inn Express in Woodstock, Virginia.” That’s when I realized the source of all this trouble: traveling. You see, if you agree with the logic of some hotel managers, bedbugs aren’t transferred to your clothing and suitcases from the bedding and floors of hotels like the Holiday Inn Express in Woodstock, Virginia because those establishments are free of bedbugs. No. Bedbugs are superhuman, (well, not really superhuman, but you know what I mean), capable of flying through the air from car to car while those cars are traveling (there’s that word again) down the interstate. They also can spontaneously erupt in your luggage while you are traveling (see, that activity keeps popping up) on your way home. When all possible explanations are honestly ruled out, all that remains is the impossible. Right? Well, almost nine weeks after our wonderful stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Woodstock, Virginia we still have that creepy-crawly feeling. Though I’m pretty sure that our unwelcome guest, wherever they came from, are gone, why can’t I stop scratching? Bedbugs. Bedbugs. Bedbugs. You can’t stop scratching either, can you?
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