How do you judge the vectors of disease?

Do you hate or blame the person who has a cold and you end up catching it?  What do you do when you contract a communicable disease from someone, do you seek revenge?  How do you feel about exotic parasites or viruses or bacterial and fungal infections?   Here’s an ethical question:

You are in the largest and fanciest hotel in a large city and you (as an observant and knowledgeable biologist), find and capture a live bed bug in your room.  You knew immediately what you had captured, but you took a minute to Google it and were now 99.99% sure…  What do you do?  What do you expect the hotel staff to do?

I recently found myself in this position.  I dropped the little bugger into a vial of 70% isopropyl alcohol (something that we biologists always carry), and took it down to the desk concierge (someone of whom I had no knowledge of the extent of his authoritative powers).  I suggested that he or his superior might want to speak with me confidentially (my thoughts were to not set off a panic among the other guests if in the crowded lobby they overheard us use the term: “bed bug”). 

Surprisingly, my suggestion of confidentiality was rejected (possibly in retrospect, ruefully) and I explained the situation and displayed the obligate parasite of Homo sapiens,  Cimex lectularius  - the common beg bug, right there at the desk.  I will say that at this point Mr. Gilbert X became very attentive and began to deal with the situation promptly and professionally.  We were offered the resources of the hotel to move us to a presumably uncontaminated room and to clean our luggage and personal effects.  All well and good but we had to surrender all but the clothes on our backs for a 24 hour period and then repeat the process the next day in order to not go naked during a conference (I am fine with nakedness in certain situations but this wasn’t one of them).  During this inconvenience we missed a significant part of the proceedings.

Before check out time, I requested a meeting (again quiet and confidential) with the concierge to discuss our bill.  I suggested that I might have done them a large favor with my observant and quick and effective action.  I suggested that, had I been a lawyer or someone out to make the most of every situation, they might have had an even bigger problem.  Much like a negotiation with a car salesman, he offered nothing except: “What are you willing to pay?”  Not a good negotiator, I was waiting for his offer…  We ended up paying half price for our stay.  Probably a great deal for them… then again, I’m not a lawyer or the other names you often hear them called.  I’m satisfied.

However, I hope that I get a letter of thanks from the parent company.  I know that I saved their asses and didn’t even try to get a free drink at the bar.

What would you have done?