Woman covered in 'incredibly painful' bed bug bites after staying at Premier Inn

23 October 2023 , 11:38

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There has been a surge of bed bug cases in the UK (Image: Getty Images)

A woman has told how she had “incredibly itchy and painful” bites from bed bugs on her arms, legs and back from staying at a Premier Inn.

Vicky Hills, from Dunstable, Bedfordshire, says she has now received a refund and compensation after staying in a hotel in Hastings, last August. But she claims there was a delay in receiving expenses for new bedding, bed bug traps and medication that she had to buy. It was when Ms Hills was driving back from her visit to the hotel that she first started to notice the bites on August 11, as she first thought they must have been mosquito bites. It was when she went for medication from a pharmacist that they told her the bites must have come from bed bugs.

She made an appointment to see her GP and it was then confirmed to her. "They were incredibly itchy, incredibly painful. I had two lines up the front of my leg and then I started getting them on my shoulder and arms," she told the BBC, while adding that she has had some scarring from the bugs which she hopes will fade in time.

Ms Hills had to throw out her bedding at home and bought traps to kill the bed bugs. She said that she has had the £78 cost of her hotel room refunded within 10 days but claimed that the compensation for items she had to buy took nearly two months to be paid. Finally she received £312 that included a goodwill gesture.

Premier Inn has apologised for the incident and said the room was put into “lockdown” as soon as the complaint was made. A spokeswoman for the company told The Mirror: "We have rigorous processes in place to both react to and prevent issues on the rare occasion they do arise. As soon as our team were aware of this complaint the room was put on lockdown and independent experts immediately called in to resolve the issue using a specialist treatment, with no further cases reported. We’ve apologised to the guest and are glad to have been able to resolve the issue to her satisfaction."

'Council had to move us from our flat because of bedbugs – it was horrific'

There has been a surge in cases of bed bugs in the UK and thousands of households have been seeking help to deal with them. Pest control firms in London alone say they have been ‘inundated’ with calls. And the number of people in the UK using Google to search for information on bed bugs has rocketed nearly fourfold in the past month.

Tim Hanlon