Originally Posted by
chgoeditor
There are always cheap exhibitors that decide they don't want to send their freight to the exhibition services company, and instead send it directly to the hotel to circumvent the fees, or because they think they'll get their freight more quickly. But hotels are smart--they have a pretty good idea when an arriving package is for a normal guest or one associated with the conference. (For example, if you've gotten a conference rate for your hotel room, it's in the reservation record.) They also know you were supposed to ship your materials elsewhere. If too many exhibitors ship directly to the hotel when they were supposed to ship to the exhibition services company, the hotel quickly runs out of storage space for packages destined non-trade show guests. And the hotel is probably going to get a little annoyed at these exhibitors.
I worked for a company whose procedure was to ship trade show materials via UPS, always to the hotel, not to the designated advance receiving warehouse operated by the show's official decorator. In nearly all cases, I was able to get my show freight from the hotel upon check in, except one time.
In that instance, many exhibiting companies (like the one I worked for) shipped their materials to the hotel. When I arrived, I was told by the hotel that all materials for the trade show I was attending at that hotel was turned over to the show's official decorator. Upon arrival at the show site, I had to pay up front a drayage charge to receive my freight.
Several exhibitors who also sent material to the hotel protested, but show management said doing this was a violation of show procedures and anyone not paying the drayage charge would not be asked back to participate in their future shows.
I recall the inbound drayage charge assessed here was quite reasonable - about $35 for 6 or 7 cartons (that was ten years ago, in a smaller hotel in Pennsylvania, not at a big city convention center). In fact, back then I paid one hotel $10
per carton for receiving similar materials, thus what I paid in this instance was a bargain.