The statute
“All bedding used in any hotel must be thoroughly aired, disinfected, and kept clean. No bedding which is infested with vermin or bedbugs shall be used on any bed in any hotel. All floors, carpets, and equipment in hotels, and all walls and ceilings shall be kept in sanitary condition.” (ORC 3731.13, effective July 1, 1992)
That is the whole of it. No inspection interval, no treatment standard, no guest-notification rule. The EPA-hosted 2023 compendium of state bed bug laws lists it as Ohio’s only bed bug provision.
What a hotel operator should take from it
- The duty is strict in wording: no infested bedding “on any bed.” A room in service with an active infestation is a violation on its face.
- Hotel licensing and inspection in Ohio run through the state hotel chapter and local health departments; the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department’s Environmental Health Division is the local contact.
- A written inspection-and-treatment log per room is the record that answers both an inspector and a guest’s complaint.
Our hotel service
Scheduled room-by-room inspection; single-room heat with the adjacent rooms checked; same-day response to a guest complaint; a log the operator keeps. Heat is the right method for a hotel room: one treatment, no residue on the bedding, the room back in service the next day.
Plain-English guidance, not legal advice. Ohio Revised Code quotations (5321.04,
5321.05, 3731.13) were read on 2026-10-08 from archived captures of the Legislative Service Commission’s
official section pages at codes.ohio.gov (captures dated February–April 2026); confirm current text
on the live site. The Toledo Municipal Code was not read for this page; nothing here describes it. For
advice about your tenancy, contact Legal Aid of Western Ohio or a lawyer.