Nothing is worse than a potential customer reading a review about bedbugs when they are looking for a place to stay on their vacation.
Let’s face it. People do not treat hotels like their homes. After all, they are on vacation and they don’t want to clean where they are staying since they are paying someone else to clean it for them. This means they will leave food particles without caring to clean up after themselves.
Because of this, it creates a breeding haven for pests such as mice, ants, cockroaches, bed bugs, spiders, and other pests. If one customer brings their dog and the next customer does not have a dog they may be surprised to find fleas or ticks in the room.
Here are some tips and tricks to help cut down on pests in hotels and motels.
- Food
- Not only is it important to have the maids take care of leftover food in the rooms but extreme care should be taken to make sure that the hotel’s kitchen is in top notch. You can clean it as thorough as you want but there are areas that need to be taken care of by OHA such as behind the walls. Contact us, we know all of the pests hiding places!
- FIFO, First-In-First-Out. Be sure to rotate your inventory to maintain fresh foods and ingrediants.
- Store food in containers that pests will have a hard time getting into. Transfer food such as rice from cardboard containers that mice can get into instead into sealed plastic containers.
- Clean your cooking utensils, tables, sweep and mop your floors on a daily basis.
- Laundry Rooms, Hallways, and Other Rooms
- The laundry room is the dirtiest area of a hotel where rodents love to nest and eat on fabric.
- Hallways should be checked for cracks and opening where beetles can hide. After OHA treats these areas they should be repaired.
- Be on the lookout for leaky faucets in all of the rooms as this is a way to attract pests into the area.
- A thorough steam cleaning is encouraged at least once a month to keep pests at bay.
- Outside
- Have OHA treat the outside perimeter. When they do that they will give you their opinion on what they observed during their inspection that needs your attention and needs to be repaired.
- Fixing broken screens and windows that allows easy access to the building.
- Holes, cracks, and gaps in the foundation that need to be taken care of. For example, gaps should be sealed where plumbing and electrical enters in the building. Foundations will have cracks that can be sealed. These are areas especially needed to keep rats, rodents, and termites out of your establishement.
- Landscapes that open to dry areas.
- The dumpster is a breeding haven for bugs and pests. Don’t just throw the trash in it and forget about it. Take a hose and clean it off every once in a while, especially after they pick up the garbage. You will have access to the bottom of the bin at this point of time. Ask our team of experts what chemicals you can use to cut down on pests in dumpsters.