On my first trip to SE Asia I lay on my bed the first night and a lizard ran down the wall and behind a picture. I was tired and not about to chase a lizard around the room trying to shoo him out the door. The next day I discussed this with a more travel savvy couple and they explained, first it is quite normal and second it is in fact an advantage to have a gecko or two in the room as their prey of choice is mosquitos. So since then I have been totally OK with them.
I have often run into folks from the northern climes that encounter a gecko in the room and find it a little disturbing. I explain what was explained to me and some are better with the presence of a lizard and some are not.
Bugs are also a fact of life in warm places. We now store any open food in the fridge during our travels. Even if it does not require refrigeration. We once left our bags on the floor with some food in one of them and when we returned to the room we had an ant highway from the wall across the floor into the bag and back out the door. Even the poorly thought of cockroach is a normal inhabitant of any place it can get into, including hotel rooms. Most tourist places spray for the bugs but some roaches still set up a household and are hard to get rid of. You can imagine what the normal Canadian, who may have never seen a cockroach must less co habitated with one, thinks the first time a roach scurries across the floor and under some shelter.
Not a gecko!
Today I withness why one should keep a pet gecko in your room. We are sitting by the pool and out from the surrounding greenery races a cockroach. Hot in persuit was a gecko, not much bigger than the roach. There was a bit of to and fro and then the gecko pounces. Not much of a struggle but it did take a minute or two for the roach to submit. When the twitching subsided the gecko headed back to the greenery to enjoy lunch.
Not a gecko either!
This display of nature enforces the idea of letting a gekko run loose in your room. It is even worth the small amount of gekko shit we found on the sink drain board in out last accommodation in Dominica.
And they are kind of cute.
Still not a gecko!