Ellie Davina, 22, discovered bedbugs crawling out of her pillowcase at the Premier Inn Manchester Airport hotel, prompting the chain to seal off the affected rooms. The incident occurred on June 17, 2026, when Davina had booked a single night stay ahead of a flight to Tenerife.
Discovery of bedbugs
Davina, a self-employed jeweller from Bradford, West Yorkshire, said she rested on the double bed for a couple of hours while her friend slept in the single bed. When she got up to use the toilet and used her phone's torch to navigate back, she noticed a bedbug on her pillow. Upon further inspection, she found at least 10 bedbugs, some as large as her fingernail, crawling out of the pillowcase and bedding.
"When I was coming back from the toilet, I noticed a bed bug crawling across my pillow. I looked further and the more I looked, the more I found. As soon as I'd seen one, there was another and another and another," Davina recounted. "There were about four in the seam of this pillow case, I'd had my head laid there. These bed bugs were absolutely huge, one of them was the same size as my fingernail."
Hotel response
Davina immediately reported the issue to reception, where she was initially met with laughter from staff. She was offered a free breakfast and a full refund of £77, but the refund was not processed immediately. After waiting for over an hour, she was relocated to another room but could not sleep, sitting on the edge of the bed until checkout. She has since lodged a formal complaint and claims the refund has not yet been received.
"They were giggling at me and were just not really bothered that I could have been eaten alive in my bed, I was so annoyed," Davina said.
Impact on guest
Davina suspects a lump on her leg earlier that evening may have been a bedbug bite. The experience has left her paranoid, causing her to inspect her hotel in Tenerife and even her own bed after returning home. "I've never experienced something like that in my life. Now I know they're real, I will check everywhere that I go," she said.
Premier Inn statement
A Premier Inn spokesperson said: "Bed bugs are incredibly rare in our hotels, and we have rigorous processes in place as part of our daily housekeeping processes to both react to and prevent issues on the rare occasion they do arise. This includes taking complaints of this nature very seriously and our teams are corresponding directly with Ms Davina on the circumstances of her stay."
The spokesperson added that an expert supplier visited the hotel, treated the room, and checked nearby rooms, confirming it was an isolated case. The hotel apologised for the "extremely rare" incident and expressed hope to welcome Davina again in the future.
