A compiled reference of 46 verified statistics on pests in rental property, spanning what treatment costs by pest and by room, how prevalent bed bugs are across property types according to the pest industry's own annual survey, what a single incident costs a lodging operator in treatment, lost business and litigation, what a pest report does to guest ratings and room value, and how common rodents are in the national housing stock. Every figure is drawn from a named public source, including the National Pest Management Association, Orkin, University of Kentucky researchers, the US Census Bureau's American Housing Survey, Ecolab and Angi, and independently checked against the original before publishing.
Key statistics
6 highlights from this report
Key statistics
Key takeaways
Pests are the one maintenance category where the treatment invoice is the smallest number on the page. A bed bug treatment runs $2,500; the incident it belongs to costs a hotel $6,383 once lost business and soft goods are counted, and $23,560 if it ends in litigation. The industry's own survey puts bed bugs in 70 percent of pest professionals' hotel work, and a single review mentioning them takes $38 a night off a business traveler's willingness to pay. The damage is reputational before it is physical.
70% of pest professionals treated hotels and motels for bed bugs in the past year
A single bed bug incident costs a hotel $6,383 on average
One bed bug review lowers a room's value by $38 a night for business travelers and $23 for leisure
Bed bug treatment costs $2,500 on average, in a range of $1,000 to $4,000
Visible pest evidence makes 72% of guests cut their rating by at least three stars
15.7 million US homes saw signs of mice or rats inside in 2023
Where bed bugs are treated
The pest industry surveys its own members every few years on where they are called out. The 2025 figures below are the share of US pest control professionals who treated each property type for bed bugs in the previous year, according to the National Pest Management Association (pestworld.org) with the University of Florida.
Source: National Pest Management Association and University of Florida pest-professional survey, 2025. Share of professionals who treated each property type for bed bugs in the past year.
How we built this report
Every figure below was compiled in August 2026 from named public sources and checked against the original document before publishing.
- Compiled from primary sources
The pest industry's own member and consumer surveys, a national pest-control company's hospitality research, a university consumer study, federal housing survey data, a hospitality hygiene supplier's guest survey, and a published contractor pricing guide.
- Only explicitly stated figures
We include only numbers a named source states directly, and attribute each one inline where it appears with the year of the underlying survey. Where we do arithmetic on top of a cited figure it is labelled as a worked example with the inputs shown.
- Funding and vintage disclosed
Orkin is a pest-control company reporting on its own market; the University of Kentucky study was funded by a mattress-encasement maker. Both are stated. Where the pest association's own site mixes 2025, 2018 and 2011 survey figures, each is labelled with its year.
- Independent review
Written by one co-founder, reviewed by the other before publishing.
Scope caveat: contractor cost figures are guide-level national ranges, not an audited survey. The hospitality figures come from hotel surveys; short-term rentals share the exposure but are not separately surveyed. Federal survey data covers the whole US housing stock. Confirm any individual figure against the specific source before relying on it for a budget.
Rental pests, by the numbers
All 46 figures, grouped by theme, each from a named public source and independently verified against the original.
What pest control and bed bug treatment cost
According to Angi (angi.com), whose pest control guide was updated in August 2026, pest control costs $172 on average, in a normal range of $108 to $261 for a 1,500-square-foot home and $50 to $500 overall. Bed bugs are the expensive exception: Angi's dedicated bed bug guide puts treatment at $2,500 on average, $1,000 to $4,000 typical, and $350 to $6,200 at the extremes, priced by room at $200 to $400 or by area at $4 to $7.50 per square foot. Emergency bed bug treatment adds $200 to $500, which is the pest trade's version of the after-hours premium in our emergency repair reference.
Statistic 1
Pest control costs $172 on average, with a low of $50 and a high of $500.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 2
The normal range for a pest control visit is $108 to $261 for a 1,500-square-foot home.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 3
A one-time service costs $300 to $550; an ongoing plan's initial visit $150 to $300; a monthly visit $40 to $70; a quarterly visit $100 to $300.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 4
A full-service job such as a wasp or roach infestation in a 1,500-square-foot property runs $200 to $600; termite tenting and fumigation up to $8,000.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 5
By pest: ants $100 to $500, cockroaches $100 to $600, fleas $100 to $400, rodents $180 to $600, spiders $100 to $500, termites $250 to $1,000.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 6
Inspection fees run $150 to $450, sometimes waived with treatment.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 7
Bed bug treatment costs $2,500 on average, in a normal range of $1,000 to $4,000, with a low of $350 and a high of $6,200.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 8
Bed bug extermination costs $200 to $400 per room, or $4 to $7.50 per square foot.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 9
By bedroom count: $300 to $650 for one, $700 to $1,000 for two, $1,050 to $1,450 for three, and $1,500 to $6,200 for a whole home.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 10
By method: heat $1 to $3 per square foot, chemical $2 to $5, steam $2 to $7.50, freezing $3 to $6, fumigation $4 to $8; a detection dog $300 to $600 plus removal.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 11
Chemical treatment runs $270 to $775 per room; fumigating a large building with a severe infestation can exceed $50,000.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 12
Emergency bed bug treatment adds $200 to $500 to the bill.
Angi (2026)
Worked example
At Angi's $200 to $400 per room, treating every bedroom in a 15-unit portfolio of two-bedroom units is $6,000 to $12,000, per RapidEye Research. A quarterly preventive plan for the same 15 units at $100 to $300 a visit is $6,000 to $18,000 a year, which is why the industry's own finding that prevention is cheaper than treatment (Statistic 27) is a portfolio question, not a per-unit one.
What this means: most pests are a sub-$300 call. Bed bugs are the exception by an order of magnitude and are the only pest with a published emergency surcharge, which tells you how they arrive: reported by a guest, mid-stay, with the next check-in already booked. Every other figure on this page is about what happens after that call.
How prevalent bed bugs are, by the industry's own count
According to the National Pest Management Association (pestworld.org), whose 2025 survey with the University of Florida polled US pest professionals, more than 82 percent treated bed bugs in the past year: 89 percent in single-family homes, 88 percent in apartments and condos, 70 percent in hotels and motels, 57 percent in nursing and assisted-care facilities and 36 percent in college dormitories. 76 percent call bed bugs the most difficult pest to eliminate. The association's earlier 2018 survey put hotels and motels at 68 percent, offices at 46 percent, hospitals at 36 percent and public transportation at 19 percent, with more than half of professionals reporting their peak bed bug calls in summer, the travel season.
Statistic 13
More than 82 percent of pest control professionals treated bed bugs in the past year.
National Pest Management Association and University of Florida (2025)
Statistic 14
70 percent of pest professionals treated hotels and motels for bed bugs in the past year.
National Pest Management Association and University of Florida (2025)
Statistic 15
89 percent treated single-family homes and 88 percent treated apartments and condos.
National Pest Management Association and University of Florida (2025)
Statistic 16
57 percent treated nursing homes and assisted-care facilities; 36 percent treated college dormitories.
National Pest Management Association and University of Florida (2025)
Statistic 17
76 percent of pest professionals say bed bugs are the most difficult pest to eliminate.
National Pest Management Association and University of Florida (2025)
Statistic 18
In the 2018 survey, 97 percent of pest professionals had treated bed bugs in the past year, and 68 percent had treated hotels and motels.
National Pest Management Association, Bugs Without Borders (2018)
Statistic 19
In 2018, 59 percent treated nursing homes, 47 percent schools and daycares, 46 percent offices, 45 percent college dorms, 36 percent hospitals and 19 percent public transportation.
National Pest Management Association, Bugs Without Borders (2018)
Statistic 20
More than half of pest professionals receive their most bed bug calls during the summer.
National Pest Management Association, Bugs Without Borders (2018)
Statistic 21
84 percent of professionals were first contacted about a different pest before identifying bed bugs; 71 percent of those misidentifications were fleas and 28 percent cockroaches.
National Pest Management Association, Bugs Without Borders (2018)
Statistic 22
Bites are the most commonly reported sign of an infestation, at 92 percent.
National Pest Management Association, Bugs Without Borders (2018)
Statistic 23
Bed bugs are present in all 50 US states; a female can lay up to 5 eggs a day and over 500 in a lifetime, and nymphs mature in about 21 days.
National Pest Management Association (2025)
What this means: seven in ten pest professionals worked a hotel bed bug job last year, and the peak season is the same season a rental operator's occupancy peaks. Two figures matter most operationally. Bites are the reported sign 92 percent of the time, meaning the guest is the detector. And 84 percent of calls start as a different pest, meaning a cleaner reporting "fleas" is, statistically, more likely reporting bed bugs.
What one incident costs a lodging operator
According to Orkin (orkin.com), a national pest control company reporting on its own hospitality survey with the Bantam Group in 2017, hotels spend an average of $6,383 per bed bug incident, covering treatment, replacement of soft goods and lost business, and treat 7.1 times every five years. Where the incident leads to litigation the average cost rises to $23,560, and almost half of hotels have been sued over bed bugs. Those figures were later cited in a 2019 commentary in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (pnas.org), which is the closest thing to peer-reviewed confirmation the hospitality numbers have.
Statistic 24
Hotels spend an average of $6,383 per bed bug incident on treatment, replacement of soft goods and lost business.
Orkin, hospitality industry report (2017)
Statistic 25
Litigation costs an average of $17,177 per incident, bringing a litigated incident to as much as $23,560.
Orkin, hospitality industry report (2017)
Statistic 26
Hotels treated for bed bugs 7.1 times every five years on average, making five-year costs as high as $167,276 if every incident is remediated and litigated.
Orkin, hospitality industry report (2017)
Statistic 27
82 percent of hotels say it is less expensive to prevent than to treat bed bug issues.
Orkin, hospitality industry report (2017)
Statistic 28
Eight in ten hotels dealt with bed bugs in the past year, and 40 percent treated in the past month.
Orkin, hospitality industry report (2017)
Statistic 29
Almost half of all hotels have been the subject of litigation because of bed bugs.
Orkin, hospitality industry report (2017)
Statistic 30
Two-thirds of hotels worry as much or more about bed bugs than they did five years earlier.
Orkin, hospitality industry report (2017)
Statistic 31
98 percent of surveyed hotels reported spending on active surveillance and prevention programs.
Scarpino and Althouse, PNAS commentary citing Orkin (2019)
Worked example
Angi's average bed bug treatment is $2,500. Orkin's average incident is $6,383. The treatment is roughly 39 percent of the incident; the remaining $3,883, about 61 percent, is soft goods and lost business, per RapidEye Research. On Orkin's 7.1 incidents per five years, that is $45,319 of incidents in five years before a single lawsuit.
What this means: the treatment invoice understates the exposure by more than half, and that is before litigation, which nearly half of hotels have faced. For a short-term rental the same arithmetic applies with one difference: a hotel can take one room offline and keep selling the rest, while a single-unit listing loses 100 percent of its inventory for the treatment window.
What a pest report does to ratings and room value
The reputational cost is measurable. According to University of Kentucky researchers (uky.edu) Michael Potter, Wuyang Hu and Jerrod Penn, surveying almost 2,100 US travelers in a 2015 study funded by a mattress-encasement maker, a single report of bed bugs in recent traveler reviews lowers the value of a hotel room by $38 per night for business travelers and $23 for leisure travelers, and finding signs of bed bugs was the issue most likely to make respondents switch hotels. According to Ecolab (ecolab.com), in a 2025 guest survey, visible pest evidence makes 72 percent of guests reduce their rating by at least three stars. And according to a 2025 Harris Poll for the National Pest Management Association (pestworld.org), only 29 percent of Americans can correctly identify a bed bug, just 28 percent check their hotel room for them, and 44 percent would leave if they found them.
Statistic 32
A single bed bug report in recent traveler reviews lowers a hotel room's value by $38 per night for business travelers and $23 for leisure travelers.
University of Kentucky, Potter, Hu and Penn (2015)
Statistic 33
The study surveyed almost 2,100 people across all 50 states and DC: 1,298 leisure travelers and 790 business travelers.
University of Kentucky (2015)
Statistic 34
Finding signs of bed bugs was the issue with the largest share of respondents choosing to switch hotels; 60 percent said they would.
University of Kentucky (2015)
Statistic 35
Only 35 percent of business travelers and 28 percent of leisure travelers correctly identified a bed bug in a lineup of common insects.
University of Kentucky (2015)
Statistic 36
Visible pest evidence makes 72 percent of guests reduce their rating by at least three stars.
Ecolab guest survey (2025)
Statistic 37
Only 29 percent of Americans can correctly identify bed bugs.
Harris Poll for the National Pest Management Association, 2,099 US adults (April 2025)
Statistic 38
Just 28 percent of Americans check their hotel room for bed bugs before staying overnight.
Harris Poll for the National Pest Management Association (2025)
Statistic 39
Only 44 percent of Americans would leave their accommodations if they found bed bugs.
Harris Poll for the National Pest Management Association (2025)
Statistic 40
One in five Americans has had a bed bug infestation at home or knows someone who has encountered bed bugs.
National Pest Management Association, Bed Bugs in America survey (2011)
Worked example
Apply the Kentucky figures to a listing at 200 nights a year: one bed bug review costs $7,600 a year in willingness to pay from business travelers and $4,600 from leisure travelers, per RapidEye Research. Either figure exceeds Angi's $2,500 average treatment, and both persist for as long as the review is recent.
What this means: the guest is a poor detector and a severe judge. Fewer than three in ten can identify a bed bug or think to look, but once they do, 72 percent cut the rating by three stars and the review itself takes measurable revenue off every subsequent night. Prevention and turnover-time detection are the only points on that curve where the operator is in control.
Rodents, and the long-term rental floor
Bed bugs dominate the lodging conversation, but rodents are the more common pest nationally. According to the US Census Bureau (census.gov), reporting its 2023 American Housing Survey, 15.7 million of the 133.2 million occupied US housing units saw signs of mice or rats inside the home in the previous 12 months, and 3.9 million reported mold, against 2.3 million with a broken toilet and 3.7 million with exposed wiring in the same release. Rodent extermination costs $180 to $600, according to Angi. On the long-term side, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (hud.gov), 24 CFR 5.703, the national standard for the condition of HUD housing, names infestation explicitly among the health and safety concerns a unit must be free of.
Statistic 41
15.7 million US housing units saw signs of mice or rats inside the home in the previous 12 months.
US Census Bureau, American Housing Survey (2023)
Statistic 42
3.9 million US housing units reported mold in the previous 12 months.
US Census Bureau, American Housing Survey (2023)
Statistic 43
The survey covers 133.2 million occupied housing units and collects more than 100 quality-related items.
US Census Bureau, American Housing Survey (2023)
Statistic 44
Rodent extermination costs $180 to $600.
Angi (2026)
Statistic 45
Federal standards list infestation among the health and safety concerns a HUD housing unit must be free of.
24 CFR 5.703
Statistic 46
Renters occupy 3.5 million of the 6.45 million inadequate US homes, against 2.8 million owned.
National Association of Home Builders, analysing the 2023 American Housing Survey (2025)
Worked example
15.7 million rodent sightings against 133.2 million occupied units is roughly one home in eight and a half in a single year, per RapidEye Research. That is a higher annual incidence than interior water leaks (11.2 million, about one in twelve) in the same federal release, and it is the failure a turnover inspection is best placed to catch, since droppings and gnaw marks are visible before a guest is.
What this means: the same tenure skew that runs through our plumbing and HVAC research applies here: renters are over-represented in inadequate housing, and infestation is a named federal habitability failure. In a short-term rental the guest reports it in hours; under a lease it can go unreported for a season. In both cases the operator's only early-warning system is whoever is in the unit at turnover.
Cite this study
Academic or press use: copy a ready-made reference. RapidEye is the publisher.
Quick FAQ
How much does bed bug treatment cost?
Bed bug treatment costs $2,500 on average, in a normal range of $1,000 to $4,000, with a low of $350 and a high of $6,200, according to Angi's 2026 cost guide. Per room it runs $200 to $400, or $4 to $7.50 per square foot: $300 to $650 for one bedroom, $700 to $1,000 for two, and $1,050 to $1,450 for three. Emergency bed bug treatment adds $200 to $500.
How common are bed bugs in hotels and rentals?
70 percent of pest control professionals treated hotels and motels for bed bugs in the past year, according to the National Pest Management Association's 2025 survey with the University of Florida, behind only single-family homes at 89 percent and apartments and condos at 88 percent. Orkin's hospitality survey found eight in ten hotels had dealt with bed bugs in the past year and treated 7.1 times every five years.
What does a bed bug incident cost a hotel or rental?
$6,383 per incident on average, covering treatment, replacement of soft goods and lost business, according to Orkin's hospitality industry report. Where the incident leads to litigation the average rises to $23,560. Separately, University of Kentucky researchers found a single bed bug report in recent traveler reviews lowers the value of a hotel room by $38 per night for business travelers and $23 for leisure travelers.
How much does general pest control cost?
Pest control costs $172 on average, in a normal range of $108 to $261 for a 1,500-square-foot home, according to Angi. A one-time service runs $300 to $550, a monthly visit $40 to $70 and a quarterly visit $100 to $300. By pest: ants $100 to $500, cockroaches $100 to $600, rodents $180 to $600, termites $250 to $1,000, and bed bugs $1,000 to $4,000.
How do pests affect guest reviews?
Visible pest evidence makes 72 percent of guests reduce their rating by at least three stars, according to a 2025 Ecolab survey. Just 28 percent of Americans check their hotel room for bed bugs before staying, but 44 percent would leave if they found them, according to a 2025 Harris Poll for the National Pest Management Association, and 76 percent of pest professionals call bed bugs the most difficult pest to eliminate.
How many US homes have rodents?
15.7 million of the 133.2 million occupied US housing units saw signs of mice or rats inside the home in the previous 12 months, according to the US Census Bureau's 2023 American Housing Survey, roughly one home in eight. Rodent extermination costs $180 to $600, according to Angi.
Data sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these named public sources, each checked against the original document before publishing.
National Pest Management AssociationPest-professional surveys with the University of Florida (2025, 2018) and Harris Poll consumer survey (2025)pestworld.org
OrkinHospitality industry bed bug cost report with the Bantam Group (2017)orkin.com
University of KentuckyTraveler survey on bed bugs and hotel room value, Potter, Hu and Penn (2015)uky.edu
US Census BureauAmerican Housing Survey, 2023 housing quality releasecensus.gov
EcolabHospitality guest cleanliness and rating survey (2025)ecolab.com
AngiPest control and bed bug treatment cost guides (2026)angi.com