Paris bedbugs: Does tech offer the solution to save travel?

Nothing is quite worse than waking up on vacation to find you have unwanted company in your hotel room. And some travelers have been experiencing just that as Paris has entered a bedbug hysteria — with other cities fearing a spread as the itty-bitty pests can be carried home. 

“They are horrible and can destroy a vacation — not only through bites but getting into clothes and luggage to be transported elsewhere,” said Robert Cole, Phocuswright senior research analyst for lodging and leisure travel, who has personal experience with bedbugs in hotels.

While travelers can take some measures to protect themselves, tech companies are working on the problem and believe they could represent the future of bedbug control.

Choosing a new way to battle the bugs is important, said Martim Gois, founder of bedbug smart tech company Valpas.

“Bedbugs have been on the planet since dinosaurs — long before beds,” he said in an interview with PhocusWire. “If we try to control them stubbornly how we have until now, with pesticides they have become resistant to and that are applied after they have already spread, what’s happening in Paris is bound to happen worldwide soon.” 

Pest prevention tech company Spotta founder and CEO Robert Fryers agreed that fighting pests like bedbugs can be made more cost-effective with technology.

“Insect pests are a massive and largely unrecognized challenge, costing [half a trillion dollars] every year,” Fryers wrote on the company’s website. “High intensity insecticide pesticide use can’t carry on. We’re bringing advanced technology to make a step change in the sustainability and cost-effectiveness of how the world manage insect pests.”

Here’s what to know about how technology can help with bedbugs and who is using technology to fight the pests that are causing a ruckus abroad.

What companies are using technology to fight bedbugs?

While it’s more common to use an exterminator or pesticides, companies like Valpas, Spotta and Delta Five are leveraging technology to fight bedbugs. 

Some are on a mission to spread the use of tech to stop bedbugs. Valpas launched a petition last week in an effort to convince Paris’ mayor to promote the use of bedbug prevention technology at hotels and rentals over the use of reactive pesticides.

How are startups using tech to fight bedbugs?

Valpas, Spotta and Delta Five may have a common enemy - but their manners of combat have slight differences.

Valpas uses smart hotel bed legs to collect bedbugs not long after they arrive in a space. If bugs are detected, hotel staff are notified by smartphone and employees can be sent to the room to empty the legs — thus avoiding a problem given bedbug infestations start small, the company said.

Delta Five uses an electronic lure it calls an “e-Lure,” which is placed at the head of the bed to attract and trap bedbugs. The device is odorless and operates in silence, per the Delta Five website. Once alerted, hotel staff can empty the device.

Meanwhile, Spotta focuses on more than bedbugs - the company uses smart pods that can be placed anywhere to detect and report insects using advanced image recognition algorithms, Fryers said in a video on Spotta’s website. In the clip, Spotta shows a pod being placed under a mattress. 

“It attracts the bugs in with a pheromone, where it's then detected by our sensors,” Fryers said. “If the algorithms identify it as a bedbug, the system sends an email alert so the property owner can take action before anyone is bitten.”

Fryers said the device – part of Spotta’s “AI-powered insect detection system for bedbugs” is about the size of a pack of cards and can be placed wherever bedbugs might be present – in a hospital, cinema, hotel – list goes on.

What advantages does tech have over traditional methods?

Most traditional methods of mitigation are applied after bedbug “infections” — too late to stop the “physical, mental, material and financial damage” that can occur, said Gois.

“They are mostly pesticide-based and bear a high environmental footprint,” he added. 

Fryers sees technology as the only option to fight bedbugs: “Technology is the only affordable, scalable solution here.  People use manual inspections and dogs, and they can both be great, but they aren't scalable,” he said.

How many hotels are implementing anti-bedbug technology?

Gois said Valpas has 60 “bedbug safe” hotels it partners with in Paris, which are recognizable with the Valpas “bedbug safe” label that informs travelers those hotel operators are using Valpas for “permanent bedbug safety” in every room. Across the globe, Valpas is in 220 hotels, he added, noting the company has plans to onboard an additional 40 locations by end of year.

Delta Five advertises on its website that its technology is installed in “thousands” of hotel rooms.

Spotta’s Fryers said on its website that the company has been working with businesses and governments around the world to prevent pests liked bedbugs in hotels - and also is working in agriculture and in forests to prevent other types of infestations.

“We've protected over 1 million room nights across Europe and North America,” Fryers said.

Using tech to stop bedbugs isn't a go-to option for hoteliers - at least not yet

The option to subscribe to a tech firm like Valpas, though, doesn’t make sense for every hotelier, per Cole’s analysis. 

“I was aware of Valpas and am a fan, but it's not cheap. If in a city like [New York] or Paris, it makes sense,” he said. “The lower the hotel rate and the rarer the bedbug incidents, owners will resist the cost.”

Given bedbugs’ longevity, Gois is betting the hotel brands that invest in tech prevention will benefit in the long run.

“Hoteliers that seize the moment and make their brands bedbug-safe and pesticide-free will win loyal business, until what will eventually become standard compliance,” he said.

Eventually, Cole believes technology could serve a primary mitigation effort in the long term.

“I'm no expert, but this is an entomological issue, and it's hard to fight the solution adaptability of insects,” Cole said. “I see it as a persistent long-term issue, with the solution being technology, probably these [internet of things] devices that attract, capture and keep statistics on these little devils.”

But all that aside – bedbugs might still have the upper hand. “Look at it like cockroaches,” Cole said. “They were around a long time before humans and will probably be here a long time after we're long gone.”