Transparency trend: Crowd-sourced bed bug database names and shames infested hotels

The Web has made the world a much more transparent place. Information about businesses is no longer traveling solely from the business to its customers, but from customer to customer as well. A glaring example of this is The Bedbug Registry, a free, public database of bedbug sightings in the U.S. and Canada. They claim to have about 20,000 bedbug reports dating back to 2006. The aim of the site is to help travelers check whether other people have encountered bedbugs at a hotel or in an apartment building so you can avoid them when you travel or rent. However, because their reports come directly from users, they don't guarantee it is accurate.