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Old Mar 8, 2017 | 4:14 pm
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chgoeditor
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Speaking generally as someone who's previously planned meetings and events (since you're not the only person to have these kinds of questions):

Any hotel that has any amount of meeting space will be accustomed to handling guest shipments, so the type of hotel really matters. If it's a quaint little inn with a few guest rooms, they may not have the space nor the staff to deal with incoming packages. But on the flip side, if it's a major convention hotel with hundreds or thousands of rooms, beware: It's very easy for packages to go astray. Picture this: UPS shows up with 300 packages for one convention and your drone. And then imagine the likelihood that your package inadvertently gets stuck the big mess of packages for XYZ Convention, which isn't happening for another month. It happens -- a lot. For that reason, it's really important to call the hotel and ask them how they'd like to have the package labeled. If they don't give you any guidance, make sure the label clearly indicates that you're a guest and the dates of arrival departure. I usually address things like:

GUEST: Chgoeditor (May 1-5)
Hotel Name
Hotel Address

And then separate from the address box write on all sides of the box in big letters GUEST and my name and dates of arrival and departure. If you are attending a conference, but you are not an exhibitor/organizer/sponsor, DO NOT put the name of the conference on the box -- you run the risk that it get lumped in with the rest of the exhibit/organizer packages.

Also, check with the hotel: Many have decided to monetize their receiving rooms, and it's not unusual to encounter a receiving fee, storage fee and/or delivery fee.

If you exhibiting at a conference and have been told to ship materials to the exhibit hall services company (a company like Freeman) rather than the hotel, but you're feeling cheap and don't want to pay their storage fees, don't ship a dozen boxes to the hotel and hope no one will notice. The hotel knows exactly what companies are exhibiting, and they have a list of all hotel guests who are attending the conference, as well as their corporate affiliations. They'll likely call the exhibition management company to come pick up your boxes because they don't have room to store the stuff -- particularly if every exhibitor decided to do an end-run around the exhibition management company.
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