In 2024 many exhibitors are venturing into the world of trade show booth rentals. With costs increasing in every area of life, businesses are constantly looking for ways to make an impact with their marketing efforts, while minimizing costs. Trade show booth rentals make this possible! By renting your trade show display, you can get more impact, with a lower cost. However, not every display is worth renting and in some situations, a booth purchase makes more sense. Below is a guide to trade show booth rentals to help you decide what is right for your next show. Buy the Camry and rent the Ferrari. The context of the show and attendees will guide your way to making the right decision!
What options are available to rent?
We rent nearly any of our portable marketing products. This includes accessories, counters, and interactive displays. Below is a list of items available to rent for your next event!
- Trade Show Booths of any size.
- Backlit Displays
- Portable Counters
- Kiosks
- Interactive Displays
- Charging Stations
- Accessories
- Monitor Stands
Rental options are a great way to lower overall event costs and stay within budget. Our post on 5 Tips to Reduce Your Trade Show Expenses explains in detail how to lower your trade show budget without sacrificing quality!
How does the rental process work?
The first question most exhibitors ask about rental exhibits is, how does the process work? Due to the nature of trade shows, logistics, set up, and use of the display, there are many factors to consider with a one-off rental exhibit. The thought of trying to rent a display can overwhelm exhibitors and turn them off to the idea. However, trade show booth rentals are typically easier for the exhibitor and more work for the exhibit house. A few reasons for this include:
- Limited Design Options for Rentals. To make rentals cost effective, we can only offer a limited selection of designs. This actually makes it easier to narrow down a design choice and make a decision for the booth. Keep in mind, for some rentals, in some circumstances, we can create a custom designed booth that utilizes rental hardware.
- Exhibit Houses Manage Logistics. When renting a booth, the exhibit house sets up the logistics coordination for the trade show including delivery, return, and project management. In many cases, we also manage the set up crew, graphic design, and show site logistics.
- Overhead and Risk Carried by Supplier. When renting a booth, we require a user agreement that requires the customer to pay for damage or lost items on the rental. However, the majority of financial risk is carried by the exhibit house. This limits the customers exposure to shipping damage claims, lost item claims, and damage during set up or break down.
Step By Step Rental Process
Now that we know some reasons why its easier to rent a trade show booth, let’s go over the process in detail:
- Send Creative Imaging Displays your exhibitor packet with all show details.
- Choose a Design from the available rental exhibits gallery.
- Work with your graphic designer or our designers to develop graphics for the booth.
- Approved graphics, cost, and sign user agreement.
- Creative Imaging Displays creates booth and sets up the display for quality control and sends photos to the customer.
- We send the booth to the show site and coordinate set up and other show details.
- Coordinate booth break down and get logistics set up to return to warehouse.
- Exhibit ships back to warehouse and is examined and restocked.
Rent vs. Purchase or Both – What is right for my company?
The immediate question after “how does the process work” is “should I rent or buy the exhibit?” This question is nuanced making it challenging to answer without considering a number of factors. Some of these factors include:
- How many times will I use this booth?
- How often do I want to change the booth design?
- How many shows do you attend annually?
- Do you have a place to store your booth?
- What is your overall budget?
When considering what is best for your company, it makes sense to look at your past show history and future exhibiting plans. For some companies with a warehouse, loading dock, and large staff which exhibits at many different shows a year with varying booth sizes, it make sense to purchase a modular booth that works for every show. That means purchasing a booth with the ability to work as an island, inline, or corner booth. Over time, purchasing an exhibit under these circumstances will save cost. If you have a warehouse, its easy to store a large booth and manage logistics yourself. Even in this situation, renting accessories or interactive displays is still a great solution.
Rental exhibits are ideal for companies that only exhibit at a handful of shows a year or have one large show a year. Additionally, some exhibitors exhibit at one major show a year like CES. A show like CES is very competitive and makes sense to invest in a great looking booth. For many companies it makes more sense to rent display for a fraction of the cost instead of making a major investment that may be out of budget. Also, international exhibitors are great candidates for rental exhibits. We can coordinate everything stateside and eliminate storage and logistics headaches. When it comes to interactive displays, renting is the best option for most exhibitors.
Combine Rental and Purchase for the Best of Both Worlds!
Many exhibitors use a combination of purchase and rental products to maximize booth space functionality. Depending on the circumstances, it could be beneficial to purchase some elements of your booth and rent others. For example, if you know you will always use a 10×10 booth it makes sense to purchase a 10 foot booth and use it over and over. However, if you use some kind of interactive display or reception counter, it could make more sense to rent that portion of your booth and purchase the back wall. In the end, if you are going to use a product consistently, purchase it. If you want the option to switch up a portion of your booth regularly then rental is the way to go! Creative Imaging Displays is here to help find the perfect combo for you next show!
How quickly can I get a rental booth?
A misconception of rental trade show booths is the availability and turnaround time. Check out this great article by Mel White on Rapid Rentals through our supplier Classic Exhibits. We offer many exhibit rentals in 8-12 production days which includes custom graphics printing! Many accessories and interactive displays are available in the same timeline or faster. Custom rental designs or larger booths have longer lead times which vary based on a number of factors.
What do you think about rental exhibits after readying this article? Contact us if you want to discuss further the pro, cons, and available options for trade show booth rentals. Thank you for reading A Guide to Trade Show Booth Rentals! Leave your comments below!