Submitted by "Anonymous" on 07/27/2010

We stayed at The Westin Times Square in New York on July 13th and my daughter woke up with several bumps on her. We flew home the next day and she kept getting more bumps on her body. We had no idea what was it was and by Thursday night she had over 80 bumps all over. I took her to the doctor on the 16th to see if she had chicken pox. The doctor saw her and right away said she absolutely does not have chicken pox she has been bitten by bed bugs. He went and grabbed his medical book to show me what it was. I told him where we had been and he said that's where she had to have gotten it.
I have contacted the hotel and starwood and received a letter from the hotel denying that they have any issues with bed bugs and that they checked this room out thoroughly (room #3037) and it came back negative. I cannot believe what they are claiming as how else would she have over 80 bites all over her body.
I have heard of this hotel having problems and I hear there is an epidemic in NY but they will not acknowledge my issue at all. We had a terrible time trying to get rid of these pests. We had to was everything including all our luggage. She was so uncomfortable for days and extremely itchy.
I really wish this hotel would admit there isssue.

Submitted by "Anonymous" on 10/10/2009

i stayed in room 4536 on october 3, 2009 and woke up with bites on the left side of my face, neck and hand. i reported this to the hotel desk, it took over 20 minutes for a person to come take the report, by which time i was late to my next appointment so i had to leave - but i left my phone number - late the next day a woman from the hotel called to say that they had closed and checked the room and there were no bed bugs - that i must be allergic

i am not a new yorker so did not know how invasive bedbugs were so i continued to wear the same nightshirt to bed when i got home - the result was that i woke up covered in bits and now i have bed bugs all over my house - and i am going to have to spend a great deal of money to deal with the problem. - ps i am NOT allergic

Submitted by "Westin New York Times Square" on 05/31/2009

For all of you who blamed the hotels for your bad experience I can assure you that this hotel indeed does treat bedbug problem’s seriously as soon a guest reports that they have been bitten by a bedbug they are immediately switched from that room and the room is locked out by security a professional exterminating Co. comes in and inspects the room 90% of the time the room comes out negative for bedbugs if it does come out positive the room gets treated and all material furniture and mattress are thrown out costing thousands then the room gets treated again and the exterminator co inspects rooms above below and next too the infected room unless the guest reports anything immediately they have no way of knowing that there are any problems they rely on the guests to report such activity as they can't expect for the hotel to inspect every the room's every time a guest checks out so please be understanding that the reason why bedbugs were there in the first place was because another guest brought mostly from outside the United States unfortunately there is no way to stop them from entering the hotel with bedbugs maybe one day we will come up with something so please rest assure that this hotel does everything it can to make their guests as comfortable as possible so that they may enjoy the trip

Submitted by "Westin New York Times Square" on 05/06/2009

4/2009
We stayed at this hotel in the winter and were originally impressed with how clean it was. We never thought to check the sheets/mattress and believed bed bugs were only found in dirty hotels. We have learned this is not the case. My husband woke up with bites on his inner thigh. We actually joked about the bites being bed bug bites. Little did we know they actually were bed bugs and that we were carrying some home in our luggage and belongings. Within a week of being home my husband started to wake up in the morning with fresh bites. Again, we were not convinced that they were really bed bugs because I was not getting bit. Then one morning I woke up with an itchy mark on my foot that looked just like the ones on my husbands legs. We examined the bed, and found nothing. I did research on line and followed the advice to check our luggage and belongings. Found nothing. Then we hired a dog service to come in and they found them in the box spring of our mattress. So, we spent about $1500.00 (decided to have the entire house heated to be sure we got rid of them) to remedy the problem in our home, luckily we caught it early. We are confident that we got the bed bugs from this hotel and felt it was important to post this so it does not happen to other people. I think it is important to note that we kept our luggage on the floor and placed it on the bed, which I have realized was a big mistake. Who knows if we would have brought them home had we not made these mistakes. The Westin has informed us that the testing they completed indicated no signs of bed bugs. However, they were not willing to provide us with the report showing there was not a problem because the report is "Starwood Property". Our room was in the 2000's.

Submitted by "Westin New York Times Square" on 10/25/2008

Stayed one night on October 16, 2008, room 4108.
I had to be out of the hotel for 5am to catch a flight out of LGA.
Legs, back and stomach felt itchy.
By the afternoon it was obvious I was getting some sort of rash.
Confirmed by my family doctor as bed bug bites.
Multiple prescriptions to treat.
One week later I still have several areas upwards of 3-4 inches in diameter all over my body and apparently I have a very serve case.
Now having issues even walking, in constant pain, even very difficult to sleep.
When calling the hotel to simply try and help someone else of experiencing the same fate they offered no apology and simply forwarded me to security to have an incident report filed.
I called their headquarters in Whitesplains NY and the gentleman I spoke to was very professional and finally someone took down the room number which will hopefully help future unsuspecting guests.
Apparently the way I was treated by the hotel was not in accordance to Westin policy.
You have to wonder if the hotel was simply trying to avoid any fault by treating me this way when all I wanted to do was help avoid someone else from going through the horrible week I've had with no end in sight.
I've traveled extensively for over 10 years and this has never happened to me.
I stayed with about 30 other people for an even at Gotham Hall and I was the only person who got bed bugs, so its obviously not a hotel wide issue.
Hopefully this note will help someone else.

Submitted by "Westin New York Times Square" on 06/01/2008

bug found in bed and identified as a bedbug based on photographs available on the worldwide web