Hidden costs in exhibition stands

1–10 days

build-up window; hours beyond it carry a surcharge

Stand types

Charges on the organiser’s side

Floor rental is the floor. Everything on top comes through a separate order form: the power connection and its rating, water and drainage, an internet line, compressed air, rigging points, forklifts, waste disposal, cleaning, security. Most forms carry an early-order discount, and prices rise for anything ordered in the final week.

What these items share is looking small one by one and adding up to something substantial. On a hundred square metre stand, power rating, rigging points and waste disposal together reach a figure worth planning for.

The fix is to read the exhibitor manual in the week the space is booked. Work out which service is ordered when, and share it with your stand team; when the two calendars diverge, you pay the late price.

The second practical step is to put every order form on one sheet: service, order deadline, expected charge, and the person responsible. That way the total is visible and the surcharge for ordering late disappears.

The hours on the show floor

The build-up window is defined in hours. The hall opens at a set time, closes at a set time, and working outside those hours attracts a charge at most venues. At some, night work is not possible at all: if the job is not done you wait for the morning, and a waiting crew is still being paid.

The second item is local labour. At some venues, forklift work, electrical connections and rigging may only be carried out by contractors the venue has appointed. Your team cannot touch them; you order the service and pay by the hour.

The third is tear-down night. The dismantling window is shorter than build-up, everyone leaves at once, and vehicles queue for a loading bay. Waiting has a cost, and that cost rarely appears as a line in the budget.

The way to see the site items in advance is to draw the installation schedule in hours. Which job on which day, in which window, and which jobs go to an appointed contractor. Once that chart exists, the number of chargeable hours is known from the start.

What starts when the fair ends

If your stand is reusable, three items appear after the show: maintaining the transport cases, storage rent, and renewing graphics for the next fair. None of them has to sit inside the first quote, but all three should have been asked about while it was being prepared.

Graphic renewal is the one most often forgotten. The structure lasts three fairs; the graphics usually last one. A new product, a new message, a changed logo or simply a scuffed surface means printing again.

On storage, two questions are enough: what is the monthly rate per cubic metre, and is the parts list checked when the stand leaves the store? A store that cannot answer the second lets you discover the missing part on the morning of the fair. We also set out which of our stand types are built to be dismantled and rebuilt.

Added together, these three make up a yearly cost of ownership. Knowing the figure lets the second fair’s budget be built on a record rather than a guess.

Why are these items left out of quotes?

Most are paid to the organiser, not the stand builder. Including them would be wrong; telling you which ones are waiting for you is not.

Which item surprises people most abroad?

Mandatory appointed contractors. Handing power, rigging and forklift work to venue-appointed firms upsets both budget and schedule when it is unplanned.