'My face was full of bites': Singaporean ends up in Bangkok hospital after encountering bed bugs at hotel

It has been a good three months since her horrible experience at a hotel in Bangkok, one which left her with painful bed bug bites all over her face. 

And up till now, the hotel is still keeping mum about the compensation, Singaporean Drea complained to AsiaOne. 

The woman took to Lemon8 to share about her ordeal during that February trip.

Nothing seemed amiss when she checked into LiT Bangkok Hotel on Feb 8 and she even praised the rooms on Lemon8, describing them as "beautiful and clean-looking". 

The next morning (Feb 9) she found two bite marks on her face which she brushed off as pimples. 

Then on Feb 10, she woke up and found her whole face covered in angry bites, which were extremely itchy. 

Ended up at Bangkok hospital 

The itch was so bad she ended up going to a local hospital where the doctor told her the bites were from bed bugs. 

Drea said she was prescribed some medicine and also got a letter from the hospital to be given to the hotel. 

This traveller then complained to the hotel staff and got a room change. The hotel manager also passed Drea her number, asking her to send the hospital bill to the hotel and that she'll be compensated. 

But she was never compensated, she said. 

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"[The] hotel manager ghosted us, no refund [was] provided for our medical bills," wrote Drea on Lemon8. 

She also shared that the original room she had stayed in was not refunded either and all she got was an upgraded room. 

And to add salt to her wound, the bites just wouldn't stop itching during the trip. 

"The bites literally got in the way of my daily life because it was so itchy [and it was] never clean enough to reapply the cream.

"I just wanted to scratch my face off at night and couldn't sleep," she lamented. 

Drea mentioned that the bites also affected her self-esteem. 

"I felt like crap because everyone kept staring at my face due to it being covered in bites," she said in her post. 

These bites only healed after she got back from her trip around Feb 14 or 15, Drea told AsiaOne. 

She also told us that up till now, there has been no communication from the hotel. AsiaOne has reached out to LiT Bangkok Hotel for their comment. 

Bed bugs in Singapore hotel 

Last June, a Malaysian tourist visiting Singapore had a similarly painful experience with local hotel ST Signature. 

During her first night there, she and a friend woke up covered in multiple red welts, leaving them feeling "petrified and traumatised". 

The pair later found what appeared to be a bed bug on the bedsheet and informed the hotel, who offered them an upgraded room and free laundry service. 

However, they still found another bedbug on the linen the next morning, and the bites on her friend appeared to have worsened in number and appearance.

In response to AsiaOne's queries then, ST Signature said that they consider the woman's incident to be an "isolated" one and they believe that the bugs were brought in with luggage in the days prior to the incident. 

ALSO READ: SingHealth apologises after kids bitten by bedbugs on hospital's bench

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melissateo@asiaone.com