When you travel, how much thought do you give to bed bugs?

[ButtercupBluebells]

I have anxiety so I do worry about things that are unlikely to happen. But the thought of bed bugs really spoils holidays for me :(
I put luggage into the bath tub when we arrive at accommodation, remove the bedding and mattress and have a thorough scout around. Even then, I'm not completely comfortable and once home again I feel anxious for weeks. I am on medication, which has been absolutely life changing apart from this one worry which I can't seem to shake! So I want to know whether I am being ridiculous or if other people tend not to give it any thought when they go on holiday...

There was quite a bit about bed bugs a few years ago. In fact dd visited someone who had a dog trained to sniff them out. She asked why there was a problem with them and he said it was down to bed linen being washed below 60 degrees.

Having had a hotel bed bug experience (perfectly reasonable UK hotel booked on Hotels.com) I do leave my bags in the bath until I have had a good check in the mattress seams and other likely areas.

But having done that I don’t stress about it or worry when I get home.

If there were bugs you would know from the bites, so no need to worry once you return home.

IMO
Checking is sensible.
Continuing to worry is a symptom of your anxiety / MH.

In any half decent accommodation there’s no need to.

That’s not actually true, though.

OK, a backpackers hostel might be more of a risk, because of the sheer numbers of people passing through and the numbers of places they have stayed in en route. But smart hotels are also known to have had them. It’s nothing to do with cleanliness as even good cleaning does not prevent or eradicate them.

@StillMedusa

I've had the same experience - unknowingly brought some of the blighters back from a rather lovely AI hotel in Greece.
Neither my husband or I tend to react to bites, although I noticed my dermatitis on my hands had gotten worse over the holiday and on return.
I found 2 bugs one night by complete chance and there started a nightmare couple of months for us.
Bed bugs are an absolute shit to get rid of, we ended up binning our bed frame, mattress and all bedding plus all that was stored underneath our then ottoman bed.
The cost ran into thousands unfortunately, and to our dismay, not covered on contents insurance.

So I'm absolutely paranoid when I travel now, no bags in room until I've had a thorough check behind the beds, seams of mattress etc

Ugh!

Not now.
But, a few years ago we stayed in an apartment in Spain which had them - we were a bit slow on the uptake so we were there a couple of days before we asked to move!
I had a number of other things going on at that time and I think it genuinely drove me just a little bit mad - think, up at 3am shining a torch on bits of the bed. We didn't bring them home but I wasn't 100% certain about that for over a year!
OP do you have a garage or similar? If so, you can put a cheap chest freezer in there. Get home, into the garage, strip off, everything in the freezer for a few days - job done. Would cost a couple of hundred pounds ... but might be worth it for peace of mind.
Bedbugs are psychologically a nightmare - IT IS NOT JUST YOU - but you are not powerless

DP brought one home once after working away across the country. He had stayed in different hotels every night so couldn't even pinpoint where it was from. It feasted on me and I was a wreck and couldn't sleep for weeks. Luckily it hadn't got to the kids. Woke up to it crawling on me one night but didn't manage to fully kill it as I totally panicked, but after that there were no more bites. We just prayed it was a single male and luckily that seemed to be the case as it was a few years ago and we've had no more incidents.

We had the room upside down, hoovering every tiny crevice and binned a lot of stuff and washed everything else on v high temp but ultimately just lucky it was only one and didn't lay any eggs.

I now pull the sheets back on every bed I stay in away from home. I do not want that incident repeating itself!

Well I always check the beds and keep luggage off the floor. Don't overly worry about it but they are on the increase due to a ban on many insecticides.
I once though we had bedbugs in the house and ended up ripping up carpets and all sorts. They are a nightmare to get rid of if you get them.

I keep luggage off the floor where possible and if I have been anywhere where I think it is more likely they might be, I unpack my luggage out of doors. I travel a lot and so far have only experienced them once, in a hotel in Tanzania where I got bitten. Coming home from that trip, I left my luggage outside for a week or so and unpacked outside (I live in Scandinavia and it was about minus 20 at the time).

This is the stuff we used to finally get rid of them:

CimeXa

It works the same way as diatomaceous earth but is much more effective. You can use it as a precaution too - just leave a very light dusting in the nooks and crannies of your bedframe, headboard etc. It's non toxic and carries on working indefinitely. Watch some youtube videos to find out how to apply it.