I lived in Durham NC for 4 years with 2 4-month "stays" in Asheville at the VA Hospital housing, and never had roaches.
Went back, in October, a couple of years later to stay at the Pinehurst Hotel Resort for a meeting. A very classy place, where major golf tournaments are held.
We came back from dinner our last night there, flicked on the lights, and the wall behind the head board had about 10 roaches or Palmetto bugs on it! I didn't care what they were....they were nasty! I flipped out, the bugs scattered everywhere, we stomped some, but no way did we get them all. I called the Front Desk....they sent up a can of RAID.
All night I kept waking up thinking one was crawling on me.....definite "romance" killers.
I hated to just put our luggage in the car! When we got home, I left everything in the garage, and clothes either went in the washer or to the cleaners, and the bags got sprayed. No way was I going to have those creepy things in my house.....