MattressCover the Lan

My name is Nathan Fielder, and I graduated from one of Canada's top business schools with really good grades.
Now I'm using my knowledge to help struggling small-business owners make it in this competitive world.
(dramatic music)
This is Nathan for you.

Javier Arteaga is an exterminator and the manager of Bugs "A" to "Z", a pest-control company based out of Woodland Hills, California, and he's desperate to expand his business beyond the residential homes he normally services.

Javier: "It'd be great if, I mean, we land any kind of hotel work."

Javier wanted a contract with a major hotel, and I had the perfect method to win him that deal.

Nathan: "Rather than making it look like the hotel has an exterminator visiting, why don't you instead make it look like the hotel is winning an award?"
Javier: "Right."

Every hotel's greatest fear is having to hire an exterminator, because their arrival is basically an announcement that the hotel has pests. So if Javier could disguise his purpose to make it look like he's there to give the hotel an award, he'd not only delight guests, but surely win a contract with the hotel that wants to keep their pest problem a secret.

Javier: "Now, how--I mean, do I show up with-- I mean, I just-- I-I--as far as, I mean--"
Nathan: "If customers see you coming in, they're actually gonna be like, 'Oh, this hotel is really good,' you know, rather than seeing an exterminator and being like, 'Oh, this hotel is not so good.'"
Javier: (laughs) You've done this before, you know, you're a business major. I mean, what's the worst that's gonna happen?"

Javier was on board with the concept.
So, to sell this to a hotel, I needed to show them exactly how the system would work, so I had one of Javier's service vans rewrapped to look like a delivery vehicle for the Hotel Excellence Awards, a very prestigious organization that I made up.

Then Javier and I worked to develop a discreet method for exterminating every room in a hotel.

Nathan: "Like, some sort of secret..."
Javier: "A compartment or an opening."
Nathan: "Compartment that opens up."

With the system now in place, I got permission from the historic Mayfair Hotel to shoot a demonstration video of our method that we could then present to their management.

It begins by arriving in our covert vehicle, then removing what looks like a large trophy that's being awarded to the hotel. This serves a dual purpose of both getting our equipment inside, and impressing guests, as they see that they're currently residing in the hotel with the least amount of bed bugs.

Guest: "With the least bed bugs?"
Nathan: "Yeah."
Guest: "So it's a possibility of some being there."
Nathan: "We're just delivering the award, we don't know."
Guest: "Oh, okay."

Then, we make our way into the private back offices where we can safely remove all our gear without anyone seeing.
Once that's done, we convert our awards table into a custom-designed maid cart, and I change my outfit to look natural pushing it.
The hollowed-out interior then allows Javier to travel from room to room without drawing any suspicion from hotel guests.

(elevator chimes)
Nathan: "You okay in there?"
Javier: "Yeah."

When we get to an infested room, the cart blocks the doorway and Javier is able to sneak out without anyone seeing.
A quick handoff of the vacuum then gets our equipment inside, and Javier can get to work spraying down the pest-ridden areas.


Although we didn't find any in this hotel, Javier told me he often encounters mattresses that get so infested with bed bugs they have to be thrown out. So I also wanted to show the hotel manager that we had a method to secretly dispose of one without guests thinking anything fishy was going on, and since the Mayfair catered to a lot of Asian clientele, the perfect cover was obvious.

In the guise of an impromptu celebration, we were able to take a mattress straight through the lobby, and once outside, all it took was a quick identity changeover to keep everything looking normal to onlookers.
Then, in the blink of an eye, we're gone, without anyone ever knowing the hotel had a problem with pests.
So later that week, I was hopeful our sales video would be enough to win over the Mayfair manager, Mike Schoeffin.

Javier: "Underneath that dragon is our mattress that was covered with bed bugs, infested with bed bugs."
Nathan: "And you can see we've been developing a new method of spraying the public areas using a blind man's cane. So to guests, it just looks like, 'Oh, there's a blind man stumbling around the lobby.'"
Manager: "Right."
Javier: "So that's what we're about."


And once our sales video was done, it was time to seal the deal.

Nathan: "Let's get your signature on that contract."
Manager: "I'm not gonna make a decision right this minute."

Mike didn't seem to want to do business with Bugs "A" to "Z," so I excused Javier to speak with Mike one-on-one.

Nathan: "Hey, so it's clear you don't want to give a deal to us today, right?"
Manager: "Not without comparing all the numbers, no."
Nathan: "You know, I have a TV show, and on the show, we like to have happy endings, so would you be able to sign this contract just for the cameras?"
Manager: "Uh, if it's just for the cameras, as long as it's not binding."
Nathan: "Great, here you go, just sign here and-- just for the cameras."
Manager: "There you go."
Nathan: "All right, so we have a deal then."
Manager: "We have a deal in the TV show--"
Nathan: "Oh, no, but in the contract, it said that "I understand that when Nathan asks, 'Will you sign this contract for the camera?' I understand that that's code for 'Will you sign the contract in real life.'"
Manager: "Oh."
Nathan: "You can see."
Manager: "Mm-hmm."
Nathan: "That clause right there."
Manager: "Right. The contract was presented to me under false pretenses."
Nathan: "Trust me, this is a good call, so you shouldn't feel bad about this."
Manager: "No, you tricked me, and it's--"
Nathan: "It's not a trick."
Manager: "No, it is a trick."
Nathan: "No, it's not a trick."
Manager: "And I don't appreciate it."
Nathan: "Everything was in the contract."
Manager: "I don't appreciate it."

I did it, and I couldn't wait to share the good news with Javier.

Nathan: "Yeah! All right. Happy, right?"
Javier: "Yeah."
Nathan: "Okay, good."