News notes from around the interweb:
- Without guests in hotels to live off of, will bed bugs survive?
Gary in 2013, The Only Time I’ve Experienced Bed Bugs - Bali seems to be doing really well with coronavirus Denpasar airport is closed to international arrivals, but there’s no social distancing. Young population, combined with hot and humid climate and a tendency to be outdoors?
- Starting May 4 United will no longer offer lie flat seats between Newark and Los Angeles/San Francisco or Boston and San Francisco, putting standard domestic Boeing 737s on these routes which are cheaper to fly even with fuel prices low.
They’re scheduled to bring back lie flat service June 7, but there’s no guarantee they will do so (and they charge the same price regardless of inflight product).
- The head of Andalusia’s government in Southern Spain wants to break with the country and open its beaches this summer, because UK package tourists are big business. (HT: @LuxeTiffany)
- What life in the air teaches us about work from home, how to hang up on videochat gracefully,
Gary Leff is experienced in shutting down conversations without making enemies. He is the author of the air-travel blog View From the Wing, and in pre-pandemic times he flew on a plane about once a week, meaning he regularly found himself a captive audience to chatty seatmates. “You can start typing away on a laptop,” he wrote to me in an email. “‘I’m sorry, I have a presentation to finish’ has never failed for me. Is it a white lie? For me, never. I’m always working.”
Under lockdown, Leff is remaining truthful as he ends interactions. He’s taken to saying that he has “another call coming up.” “Notice I said ‘coming up’ rather than ‘about to start,’” he said. “In other words, it is at some future point—true! And there are things you need to do between now and the call—also true!” People looking after children right now also have a near-permanent excuse for leaving a call, he noted.
- Another take on what hotel stays will look like after the pandemic
- Dallas-based hospitality company with $2.2 billion in revenue, that owns Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Intercontinental branded hotels, picked up $59 million in CARES Act small business funding.
- Radisson Hotels: Earn 2,500 Bonus Points + save up to 25% on future stays in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific
Will Empty Hotels Spell The End Of Bed Bugs? Perhaps.
Will COVID-19 infections spell the end of hotel customers currently used for bed bug human blood meals? Yes.
Somewhere in China, a virology lab near a wet market is working on:
Covid-20 Bed Bug Flu
Interesting perspective about Bali, although I’d love to know the sources. This will be the first year we haven’t visited in nearly a decade and having verifiable information about the situation there would be great.
Perhaps, but they’ll always have rats on the west side.
@Chris@Oak – assuming OAK – local gangsters are working on the next violent crimes. Hope you stay out of it, but in case you succumb, I won’t miss your racist ass in this world.
@tommyleo Been told the rats are starving to death since the restaurants have closed and there are no waste outside. They have even turned on each to each other to feed.
Smart hotel operators (and cruise ships, airlines, retail establishments) should take the opportunity to do a thorough inspection of their rooms/seats/facilities to look for any indication of bedbugs and remediate while closed (or at a very low occupancy). I understand the need to spend as little as possible to “bridge the gap” in low occupancy, but inspection doesn’t really cost much and the cost to remediate would be pennies compared to a property that limped along and when customers came back got bit by some really hungry suckers. That would be business killing.
My understanding and research from when I had a bedbug “event” 5 years ago (San Antonio airport hotel) was that the adults could live up to a year between feedings.
“Without guests in hotels to live off of, will bed bugs survive?”
Yes, because chain hotels despite claiming they are doing deep cleanings etc still won’t pay the big bucks to exterminate these difficult pests that can lurk dormant for months without feeding off a host
Your quixotic campaign against large multi use shower amenities in hotels may have found a savior in the coronavirus! Florida in its reopening specifies that hotels may only use single use containers! Bravo on your win!