Nothing takes the joy out of a vacation like finding bed bugs in your hotel room. An otherwise lovely looking hotel room may be crawling with the little blood suckers who won’t make their presence known until you crawl between the sheets at night and find yourself hosting a late-night buffet — with you as the main course!

Bed bugs are turning up with increasing frequency at U.S. hotels, motels and resorts. Adept hitchhikers, the little devils ride in on one guest and ride home with the next guest. In the meantime, they make themselves at home in and near the bed, waiting for the next guest and their next meal. It can take some time until their presence is discovered by an itchy guest. During that time they multiply and spread like crazy, moving into nearby rooms through vents and wall voids and crawling onto clothing and into luggage.

As they say, “An ounce of precaution is worth a pound of cure.” Before you book your next hotel room, you may want to check several of the websites now dedicated to sharing reports of bed bug activity to see if your destination is on the list. Some websites to check: BedbugRegistry.com, HotelChatter.com and TripAdvisor.com.