Gran left with weeping sores after being ‘bitten by bed bugs’ at Premier Inn

A gran says she suffered weeping sores and ‘boiling blood’ after being riddled with 70 ‘bed bug bites’ during an overnight stay in a Premier Inn hotel.

Lisa Adams, 43, and 50-year-old husband Steven booked the £58 double room in Priory Marina, Bedford, while visiting their grandchildren in Bury St Edmunds last month.

The couple checked in on September 7 and enjoyed a nice meal out in the town centre before heading back and settling in for the evening.

But when she woke the next morning, Lisa was horrified to see her legs and lower tummy riddled with itchy red sores.

Six weeks down the line, the customer service manager says the ‘bites’ have become infected, leaving her feeling as if her blood is ‘boiling’ inside her.

A spokesman for Premier Inn insisted a team of specially-trained staff found ‘absolutely no evidence of bed bugs in the room’.

Lisa, from St Austell, Cornwall, said she ‘felt a bit dirty’ when she woke up and noticed ‘all these red blotches on me’.

‘I scrubbed in the shower in case anything was still on me, it didn’t make me feel very nice at all,’ she said.

‘They were on the front and back of my legs from the ankle to the top of my leg and the bottom of my stomach.

‘They were very itchy but I didn’t want to scratch them because they already sore and I didn’t want to make them more painful.

‘I was gobsmacked when the pharmacist I visited said it looked like I had bed bug bites.

‘We’ve been to Mexico and travelled to Australia, China and lots of different places and I’ve never been bitten by anything.

‘Now I think I might have an infection because my body is itching all over and it feels like my blood is boiling inside me.’

The mum-of-three said her husband slept on top of the duvet cover while she fell asleep underneath wearing a long pyjama top.

‘When we got up my husband said I’d been a bit restless in the night – [I’m not sure] whether I was conscious that something was happening or whether it was because I was in a strange place,’ she added.

‘As I got up to get in the shower I remember thinking something wasn’t quite right as I had a bit of an itch.

‘When I looked down I saw my legs were covered in bites, it was only as I was drying myself off that I noticed how bad they were.

‘There were around 70 bites on both legs and the bottom part of my stomach – the bits of me that weren’t covered by my pyjama top.

‘They weren’t there when I went to bed.

‘Steven wasn’t affected as he slept on top of the duvet, whereas I was between the mattress and the duvet.’

Lisa took photos of the sores and showed staff, but claims they brushed her off and told her to make a complaint online.

‘They asked if we’d slept with the window open and suggested it could have been caused by mosquitoes,’ she said.

Lisa feels like the holiday was ‘marred’ when the sores became worse, with each coming up ‘into a white puss-like spot’.

‘They would just burst,’ she added. ‘They were weeping quite a lot by then.’

She claims to still be suffering with what she believes to be a lingering infection which is causing itching all over her body and the sensation that her blood is ‘boiling’.

‘All over my body was itching. I was constantly scratching, even in places where there were no bites, and it felt like my blood was boiling inside me,’ she added.

‘The doctor said that from what I’ve described, it’s definitely something in the bed or the upholstery – possibly bed bugs or dust mites.’

Lisa, who regularly used Premier Inn for the last ten years, said she’ll never step foot in one again after the way she’s been ‘fobbed off’.

A Premier Inn spokesman said: ‘To ensure that we are proactive in matters of this nature, our housekeeping and maintenance teams are fully trained to spot the signs of bed bugs.

‘In this instance, upon receiving the complaint our specially-trained team members examined the room and their stringent checks revealed no evidence of bed bugs.

‘Nonetheless, in the interests of caution, the team have since engaged with external specialists to launch their own inspection of the guest’s room and they have independently confirmed that there is absolutely no evidence of bed bugs in the room Mrs Adams’ was allocated.’

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