Why Your Hotel Should Be Using Electronic Trapping for Rodent Control

Rodent infestations are a challenge for any business, and for hotels, especially heritage premises or listed buildings, one incident could irreversibly damage your reputation as a prestige, renowned, and highly-regarded establishment.  In turn, this could lead to some very unpalatable media headlines, which depending on the profile of your hotel, could mar your reputation both in the UK and overseas.

Why do London hotels need advanced rodent control measures?

Prestige hotels have a reputation to uphold, and a rat or mouse sighting by a patron could lead to an Environmental Health investigation. Unfortunately, there are many characteristics specific to heritage and historic London hotels that are particularly welcoming to rodents, including cavities in walls, basements, and poor ventilation causing damp conditions.

To avoid customers coming face to face with a rodent, advanced measures such as electronic trapping systems should be implemented to efficiently remove rodents from the affected areas.

Why should hotels look to avoid rodenticides?

The traditional method of controlling rodents involves baiting boxes in specific locations, and essentially encouraging the rodent to eat the poisonous bait. By law the bait must be specifically targeted at the species we are trying to eliminate, and as we are dealing with small mammals, the toxicity of the bait is actually very low.

The idea being that if a non-target species accidentally ingests the bait, no harm would be done.

But what this means is no bait eradicates a rodent quickly.

The rodent, once it has taken the bait will start to feel unwell, and therefore seek out any warm, secluded area where it will eventually die after a period of anywhere between 2-7 days.

In standard commercial premises such as a factory or warehouse, this doesn’t present too many problems.

However, in a high end hotels, this can be a disastrous.

The rodent will have plenty of places to hide due to the nature of your building, where it cannot be easily spotted and hence it is unlikely the carcass can be recovered – the net result being it will slowly decompose and be not only a health hazard, but extremely smelly too. It is normally the smell which acts as the giveaway to its location – but that’s not a great experience for guests.

There is a much better solution.

What are the benefits of electronic trapping for hotels?

We use traps that do not contain poison, but a gel that attracts rodents (there is a variety we can use, as rodents have different preferences would you believe) and once they enter the trap, they are dispatched immediately and humanely.

The clever use of technology is that each trap is electronically monitored – this means that we receive an instant signal every time a trap is triggered, and the software is clever enough to tell us whether a false alarm as it may have been accidentally set off by a cleaner for instance, or that a rodent is indeed in situ.

Each trap is identifiable, which means that the dead rodent can be retrieved very quickly and before any problems occur.

The net results are no smells or decaying carcasses in hard to reach places.

Electronic traps also allow for detailed reporting which in turn can facilitate proactive actions to reduce the risk of rodent infestation in the future.  If, for example, the GPS alerts show that a particular set of traps are regularly triggered, the pest controller can make recommendations as to how rodent access can be restricted in that specific area.

How can electronic trapping systems protect your reputation as a prestige hotel?

Although electronic trapping systems are admittedly more of an investment than using rodenticides, the reputational and efficiency benefits of this state-of-the-art pest control method clearly outweigh the cost. With automatic alerts and GPS, your pest controller will be able to remove rodents quickly and more efficiently thereby protecting your reputation.

How do you choose the best rodent control company for your hotel?

Choosing the best pest control company for your hotel can be difficult, but when you find a company like Abate who is CHAS and BPCA approved, you can rest assured that you are in safe hands.

Following industry standards and best practices such as ISO quality standards, Abate provides comprehensive rodent control services with specific experience in the hospitality sector.  We provide electronic trapping systems for a number of prestige hotels in central London, and would be delighted to extend this significant experience to your premises.

If your hotel is suffering from a rodent infestation, protect your establishment’s reputation today and complete our contact form for a quote.