Bed bug safety has become a bookable hotel attribute in Iceland, with close to a third of its hotels now committed to Valpas, the bed bug safety certification for hotels. The 53 properties, including Blue Lagoon Group, signed up without a regulation or a króna of public money, and Iceland has gone from its first committed hotel in October 2025 to 53 today. No other country is as far ahead, and it gives Icelandic hoteliers a possible offset as the sector debates a tax increase on hospitality.
Iceland's certified hotels show the attribute on OTAs, in AI booking tools and on their own websites, so guests can filter for it as they already do for non-smoking rooms or Wi-Fi.
Iceland's certified hotels can now say how often travellers bring bed bugs into their rooms. Valpas data shows that since January 2026 it happened in a certified Icelandic room roughly once every three days, and every case was stopped on the first night. None became an infestation, a room closure or a guest review, and none moved on to another hotel, in a country where ring-road travellers often stay in four or five hotels a week.
Iceland's hotel room nights were worth around 122bn ISK in 2025, and Valpas estimates that the attribute would be worth around 4.2bn ISK a year to the destination if the remaining two-thirds of Icelandic hotels certify, with no increase in visitor numbers required.
The Iceland estimate applies the price premium found by Phocuswright research across 1,082 travellers in the US, UK and France, in which seven in ten said they would pay 3% to 5% more for a certified room and 79% to 84% would choose a certified four-star hotel over an uncertified five-star at the same rate.
Certified Nordic hotels are already seeing that premium in their revenue, earning an extra 3,300 to 4,400 ISK per room each month by showing the certification at the point of booking. RUNO Hotel Porvoo, Finland's only MICHELIN Key hotel, recorded a 12.5% increase in direct bookings within eight weeks, while GUESTapart in Denmark saw direct bookings and average daily rate both rise 8%.
The attribute in Iceland is backed by Valpas certification criteria independently verified by Bureau Veritas, and by permanent in-room technology that verifies every room continuously, without pesticides.
"Hotels stayed silent about bed bugs for decades, and that was rational: why talk about something you couldn't structurally solve? Guests learned to stay silent too, and changed how they book," says Martim Gois, Co-Founder and CEO of Valpas. "Iceland's hoteliers acted before this became a problem rather than after. That is the difference between a cost and an advantage, and close to a third of the country can now prove something guests will pay more for. No other country is close."
Valpas is the bed bug safety certification for hotels. Founded after co-founder Martim Gois encountered bed bugs while travelling, Valpas today certifies more than 30,000 guest rooms across more than 80 destinations. The certification methodology is independently verified by Bureau Veritas. Valpas is a member of the Global Sustainable
Tourism Council (GSTC) and the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (WSHA). The certification criteria are available at valpashotels.com/impact-and-scope. Learn more at valpashotels.com and with the Valpas app on chatgpt.com/apps
For further information, please contact:
Craig Mc Hugh, PR & Public Policy Manager · craig@valpas.io · +447361741834
