It’s everyone’s worst fear: waking up after a night in a hotel covered by bed bugs. That would be bad enough, but if you’re a model who relies on your appearance for your job and you’re staying at a hotel for work that’s even worse. Now the model is suing the hotel she stayed at over the bed bugs.

Not everyone reacts to bed bug bites, and some people experience a more severe reaction than others. The pictures posted by Sabrina Jales St. Pierre, the model in question, show that she had a severe skin reaction of some kind. The hotel asserts that it did not have a bed bug infestation at all, and that both the hotel employees and a pest control agency checked over the room and found nothing. The model’s lawyer, who specializes in bed bug legislation, stated that it was some of the most severe bites he had seen throughout his practice.

Hotel beds are a hot spot for bed bugs

Unfortunately, whether you’ve brought the bed bugs with you or the hotel had them already, once you start seeing bites you have to act quickly. Jales St. Pierre appears to have done so, as the hotel dry cleaned her clothes in order to kill the bed bugs during her stay. Dry cleaning alone is not enough though; we recommend asking to be moved to a different room altogether, and checking to see if they are able to treat your luggage as well as your clothing. Most hotels have pest control agencies contracted, or will have heat treatment options such as the ZappBug Room available to treat your items. Good hotel owners are quick to react when there’s a potential bed bug infestation – after all, it’s their reputation and livelihood that’s on the line as well. No one wants there to be bed bugs in your room.