Submitted by "n/a" on 03/22/2008

1105 Post St, The Merritt Hotel

The whole building is infested. Many of the buildings on the same block are, or so I am told. The problem starts from the large hotel above up on Van Ness and goes all the way down Post to almost Union Square, infecting many of the hotels and buildings along the way.

When I moved in I asked if there was a problem and was told that there wasn't.

They lied.

They'd been spraying for over 2 years for them at that point.

Staying in the area at all, renting an apartment there, you risk being exposed.

The entire area, and most of the rest of the edge of the Tenderloin area up and over to Polk and California and even further is infected.

Most of the hotels in the area, the weekly rooming houses, they are all battling bedbugs.

NOT a good place to live if you want to avoid them.

Submitted by "S" on 03/14/2008

Apt 6, Fall 2007
I had unusual bug bites, so I looked around online and suspected bed bugs. I called our building\'s property management, Amore Real Estate, but they were slow to act, so I continued calling several different pest control companies in the area. Pestec Pest Control, which I found from a Yelp review, responded immediately and came to do an inspection. The company seems to have a unique specialization in handling bed bugs, and they have a specially trained dog that sniffs them out. Well, Lady, the dog, found bed bugs in my room, and it turns out that the problem had originated quite some time before that in a former roommate\'s room, adjacent to mine, unbeknownst to me and the other roommate.
After some serious difficulty with Amore and debate amongst myself and the roommates (mostly over the high price of treatment and the trouble involved), we decided to have Pestec treat our apartment. They bagged and removed some furniture and large objects for us, disassembled and steam-treated other furniture and large objects, caulked and sprinkled diatomaceous earth along perimeter baseboards and mouldings and outlets, and left sticky traps behind. It took us and 3 technicians and a dog 3-4 hours; they were pretty thorough.
I comparison shopped before settling with Pestec. They were expensive, but they also had the most comprehensive services and treatment plan, and they didn\'t use harmful chemical pesticides and sprays. From my research at the time, Pestec (being one of the only companies that had dealt with bed bugs) was the most experienced and knowledgeable in this field.
We had two follow up inspections, and we ended up finding another bed bug, but Pestec came back and re-treated for no charge.
Additionally, I feel inclined to mention the extra hours and expenses we spent reorganizing and cleaning the apartment and laundering and dry cleaning most of our clothing and linens. Oh yeah, and the extra ordeal my roommates and I went through with the costs, battling Amore\'s management and consulting tenant\'s rights and lawyers, not to get into the stress and paranoia.

This is a useful link: http://www.dph.sf.ca.us/eh/pubs/BbReg.pdf