TikToker shares how to check hotel room for bed bugs

Sharon Hallam, 65, was enjoying a staycation in Blackpool, Lancashire when she was bitten all over by bed bugs.

She said the pests left a “big red” mark on her face and arms and now fears the blemishes may “never go away”.

Sharon was staying at the Calypso Hotel with her friend Marian Pearson, 60, but after waking up to find themselves covered in an itchy rash, they decided to flee.

They had made a last minute booking at the hotel for two nights, costing £170, so they could join eight friends for a birthday party on September 8.

But when they woke up the next morning they found droplets of blood covering their bedding and a live bed bug crawling around next to them.

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Sharon said they have now received a full refund from their travel agency Booking.com, along with £100 in compensation, but is still scarred from the experience.

She has now warned others of the dangers of bed bugs as fears grow around an infestation coming to London.

Fears were first raised last week as it emerged Paris had been hit with a plague of the critters that feed on the blood of animals and humans.

Passengers on the London Underground and buses in Manchester have reported seeing bed bugs on public transport.

Sharon said: “Some of the bites have turned into purple marks. I don’t know if they are going to go – I think I’m going to be marked all down my arm.

“We are on four weeks already, and I’ve still got a big red mark on my face, under my eye. And in total honesty, it’s made me paranoid.

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“If I get up to go to the toilet in the night, normally I would just go to the loo with the light off. Now I will turn the lights on and check the bed.

“They live under skirting boards, and they lay their eggs in the seam of the mattress.

“They don’t come out during the day, they come out in the dark… They see you as a meal, and they feed on you and scuttle off to wherever they go.”

This week, Luton Council issued a warning to residents it was receiving an “alarming” number of bed bug jobs.

When Sharon and Marian arrived at the hotel near Blackpool’s famous promenade, they said the lobby and their room seemed clean and tidy, with no indication there could be a bed bug problem.

Sharon said: “When we woke up, my friend pulled her sheets back and noticed there was blood. We thought ‘Where has that come from?’

“Then we found mine also had specs of blood all over the sheets as well. It took us ten minutes to work it out.

“We started to look around the floor and found droplets of blood, and then I found a live bed bug. I captured it in a little cup.

“I got to the reception and presented them with the bug in the cup.”

Marian said they had immediately left the hotel and doused themselves in bug spray, before finding alternative accommodation to stay in for their next night.

But when they got home, she said the bite marks had kept reappearing.

Marian was prescribed strong antibiotics, antihistamine tablets and creams – after doctors feared the bites could lead to an infection.

She added: “As soon as I arrived home, my partner took my luggage to the tip.

“We tied up the clothes in air-tight bags and then opened them in the washing machine and washed them.”

A spokesperson for the Calypso Hotel previously admitted they’d received previous complaints about “bug issues”.

But they said an inspector from Blackpool council found no evidence of bed bugs just two days before Marian and Sharon’s stay.

They said: “We have had few complaints about the bug issues. We take any complaint regarding bed bugs very seriously and deal with it immediately.

“Most of the time customers complain just to get a refund. A few weeks ago we had two rooms complaining about the same and when we checked with a UV torch no evidence was found.”

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