The short answerUK exterminators price bed bug work per room, per property or occasionally per hour, and the three are not comparable until you add up visits, extras and VAT. On published price lists a per-room spray course is roughly £150 to £350, a whole property £300 to £900, and heat starts near £500 a room. Always ask for the total, written down, with the number of visits and the guarantee.
Two quotes for the same bedroom can be £180 and £420, and both can be fair. The difference is usually in what each one includes. Our main cost guide gives the headline ranges. This post takes a quote apart line by line, so you can compare two firms properly and spot the one that is hiding something.
The ranges here are from published UK price lists read in autumn 2026, not from a survey. Treat them as a sense check, not a tariff.
Three ways exterminators price the job
Per room. The most common model for spray treatment. The firm charges a fixed price for the first bedroom and a lower price for each extra room. The headline price looks low. The total for a two-bed flat with an affected living room can be double it.
Per property. The firm quotes one figure for the whole flat or house, often banded by number of bedrooms. This is simpler and usually better value once more than one room is involved. Heat treatment is nearly always priced this way, or by volume.
Per hour. Less common for bed bugs, and mostly seen from general handyman-style operators. Be careful. A bed bug job has no fixed duration, and the follow-up visits are where the hours mount up. If you are quoted hourly, ask for a cap and the expected number of visits.
Which model you are offered depends partly on where you are. Firms on the London page lean towards per-property bands because flats dominate. Those on the Leeds list and the Sheffield list more often quote per room for terraced houses.
What a complete quote contains
A quote worth accepting will state, in writing:
| Line | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Rooms treated | Named rooms, not “the affected area” |
| Method | Spray course, heat, or a combination |
| Visits included | Two or three for spray; one for heat, sometimes plus a check |
| Inspection fee | Whether it is charged, and whether it is deducted from the treatment |
| Preparation | What you must do first, and whether the firm will do it for a charge |
| Extras | Mattress encasements, monitors, dust treatment, dog detection |
| Guarantee | Length, conditions, and what a return visit costs if it falls outside |
| VAT | Whether the price is inclusive or exclusive |
| Total | One figure for the whole course of treatment |
If any line is missing, ask. A firm that cannot answer “how many visits for this price” has not planned the job.
The extras, and what they typically cost
These are the lines that turn a cheap headline into a real bill. Approximate figures from published price lists:
- Call-out or inspection fee: £50 to £150. Often waived or deducted if you go ahead.
- Extra room on a spray course: £60 to £150 per room.
- Mattress and divan encasements: £30 to £80 each if supplied by the firm. Cheaper to buy yourself, but check the firm is happy with that.
- Insecticidal dust in voids and sockets: sometimes included, sometimes £40 to £100.
- Bed bug monitors or interceptor traps: £5 to £15 each.
- Detection dog: £150 to £350 a visit. Useful for confirming a clear result in a block of flats, rarely needed for a single bedroom.
- Additional follow-up outside the guarantee: £80 to £200.
- Out-of-hours or weekend visit: typically a 25 to 50 per cent uplift.
VAT
VAT is the most common source of a nasty surprise. The standard rate in the UK is 20 per cent, and pest control is a standard-rated service. Larger firms are VAT-registered and must charge it. Many sole traders are below the registration threshold and do not.
Two consequences. First, a quote of £300 from a VAT-registered firm is £360 if the quote was ex-VAT, so ask. Second, a sole trader’s lower price is not automatically a sign of corner-cutting: it may just be the VAT. Judge the sole trader on registration, insurance and method, not on price alone.
Heat treatment pricing
Heat is priced differently and it is worth understanding why. The cost is driven by equipment, the number of technicians and the hours on site, not by the number of bugs. A single bedroom is often £500 to £900 on published lists. A whole two-bed flat is commonly £900 to £1,800. Large or hard-to-heat houses run higher.
Some firms price heat by cubic metre, which rewards small rooms with low ceilings. Others band by bedrooms. Either way, the quote should state the target temperature and how long it will be held. Our heat treatment page explains the process, and our guide to what happens during treatment will help you decide if it is worth the extra.
Comparing two quotes
Put both on one sheet with the same lines. Add in the extras you will actually need. Add VAT where it applies. Divide by the number of visits if you want a sense of value per visit, but remember that the right number of visits is set by the biology, not the budget.
Then check three things that have nothing to do with price: is the firm trading under the name on the quote, does it cover your town, and is it on the BPCA or NPTA register? Those are the three facts we check for every listing. The NPTA’s own member finder and BPCA’s advice on choosing a professional both make the same point: membership means the firm has agreed to a code and has insurance in place.
Regional differences
Published prices are not uniform across the country. Quotes from firms covering Glasgow and firms covering Newcastle tend to sit at the lower end of each range. London sits at the top, and the south coast, including firms around Portsmouth and the Southampton page, is somewhere in between. The gap is mostly labour and travel, not a different product.
A fair price is not the lowest price
The cheapest quote we see for a bedroom spray is usually a single visit with no guarantee, from a firm with no membership. It will probably not work, and you will be paying again within a month.
A fair price is a complete course of treatment, in writing, from a registered firm that answers its phone. You will find those on every town page, starting with the A to Z of towns. You contact them directly, and nobody here takes a commission.