Our hostel had bedbugs. What's the best way to go from here?
Hello, I haven't been able to find reliable info online about this due to the lamguage barrier, and I don't know how much chatgpt can be trusted.
Me and my parter stayed in Cantabria for a few days in the same hostel, we had our own room and bathroom. On the last night of our stay, we noticed 2 tiny bugs that suspiciously looked like bedbugs. Over the past few days I've been itching and had some weird marks on my legs, but I thought I was just scratching too violently. With this finding it's 100% bedbugs bites.
We found white bedbugs (early life stage) under the bed, and then a bunch in one corner of the bed frame that is made of textile.
I texted the hostel manager, that suggested they cancel our booking on Booking so that they could book us a room in another hotel, since the only one close they found was more expensive. Our priority was just leaving so we accepted. They asked us to keep the "utmost discretion" on the matter and to just tell Booking we didn't stay there in the end if asked.
Now it's the next day and I think this was an attempt to cancel any trace of us having stayed there, and that we accepting the deal might have compromised the situation.
I don't care about a refund, I just wanna go home and wash all of my clothes at 60°. I'm very paranoid every time I'm itchy somewhere cuz I'm scared to find other bite marks.
What I do care about is making some sort of official complaint to some authorities. I speak very broken Spanish, I can barely order coffee and say hola and gracias. My mom says that if one room has bedbugs probably many others do, so I don't think this should be just sweeped under the bed.
I'm sorry for the long post, I'm still distressed about the whole thing. Thank you to anyone that can give some small advice.