| Next edition | Sep 2026 · ExCeL London |
|---|---|
| Starting price | £3,950+ |
| Venue | ExCeL London |
| Next edition | Sep 2027 |
| Sector | Hospitality |
| Duration | 2 days |
| Quote turnaround | 48hr |
Hospitality Tech Expo Stand Builders: ExCeL Logistics, the Hospitality Buyer, and What Wins Demos
Hospitality Tech Expo is the UK's leading event for technology in the hospitality industry, held each autumn at ExCeL London. It connects the providers of booking systems, point-of-sale, management software, payments and guest-experience tech with thousands of decision-makers from hotels, restaurants, bars and the wider hospitality sector.
The audience is buying technology to run their venues better and more profitably, so the brief is demonstrate plus capture: show the platform solving a real operational problem — covers, margins, guest experience, staffing — say clearly which part of a hospitality business you help, and turn two busy days into qualified, booked conversations. Operators buy what they can see working, not what's described on a banner.
It's a practical, commercial crowd focused on outcomes, so a clear demo and real proof do most of the persuading.
For a hospitality-tech vendor that means designing for an operator shortlisting tools between running their venues: prove the product fast, then give a manager somewhere to sit and see how it fits. The vendors who win here lead with a working demo, not a brochure.
Building at ExCeL London: the rules that shape your stand
ExCeL is a pillar-free hall with around 10m of clear internal height, but your stand does not get all of it. For space-only stands the working height limit at most ExCeL shows is 6m, and anything ExCeL classes as a complex structure — double-deckers, heavy suspended elements, long unsupported spans — triggers a formal sign-off you need to budget time for, not just money.
Complex designs must be submitted with engineering calculations applying a minimum factor of safety of 1.5. An independent structural engineer reviews the drawings and, if satisfied, issues a Certificate of Structural Adequacy at design stage, which releases your Certificate to Build; the same engineer inspects the stand on site during build-up before you can open. Miss a calculation or submit late and you do not build.
Overhead rigging is controlled tightly: all primary rigging to the ceiling is installed exclusively by ExCeL's own team, ordered through ExCeL's webshop and confirmed around 28 days before tenancy for the advance rate. Lightweight static items hang from drop wires up to 50kg; heavier loads are separate, costlier orders.
The smaller rules catch people out too: platforms above 170mm need ramped, accessible access; solid walls along an open gangway edge are generally not allowed; only water-based paint may be used on site; and every structure must be fully self-supporting. We design to all of this from the first sketch and submit the venue paperwork, so the build you approve is the build that opens.
What a winning hospitality-tech stand needs
The strongest stands lead with a working demo, not a slogan. We position screens and demo stations so a passer-by sees the product in use — a live booking flow, a POS in action, a dashboard — state the problem you solve and for whom in one clear line, and build structured lead capture into the flow. A comfortable space to walk an operator through the product earns its place, because the decisions here are considered and budget-led.
Practical detail decides whether the demo lands: screens placed to beat a bright hall's glare, audio that carries cleanly, and power and connectivity sized with headroom so a live SaaS demo never stalls in front of a prospect.
Designing for hospitality operators
Operators scan for relevance and a clear return, so the stand has to qualify visitors for you: messaging that makes plain which part of a venue you improve — front of house, kitchen, back office, marketing — so the right managers and owners stop and the rest self-select out. We design a clear path from a short demo hook to a seated conversation, with a natural handover so your specialists spend two days on the right prospects.
Proof carries weight here — a real metric, a recognisable venue using you, a live workflow — so we give the evidence room rather than filling the stand with copy, because a hospitality buyer wants to see the benefit, not read about it.
We also design the stand so a demo and a seated conversation can run side by side, because across two busy days your team needs to show the product and talk numbers at the same time.
What a Hospitality Tech Expo stand costs
A turnkey stand typically runs roughly £3,950–£12,500 for a compact custom build, £12,500–£28,000 for a mid-size build with demo space, AV and a meeting area, and £28,000 and up for a flagship island. The quote is turnkey — design, build, AV mounting, lighting, delivery to ExCeL, install, dismantle and the rigging and electrical paperwork are all included — and the AV count, connectivity and bespoke joinery move the number most.
What you don't pay extra for matters to a margin-focused buyer: the figure is genuinely all-in, so material handling, electrical and last-minute rigging are already accounted for, leaving your attention on the demo, not the invoice.
Stand sizes and layouts
Stands run from compact spaces for first-time and start-up vendors up to large islands for established platforms. The layout balances demo visibility with meeting capacity: an open island pulls traffic, while a part-enclosed layout protects scheduled conversations. Open sides matter for a two-day show because they multiply the aisles your demo is seen from, so we orient the key screen and entry to the busiest routes.
And because an operator remembers a demo they watched solve a real problem far longer than a feature list, a clear, working demonstration is usually the single best use of stand space here.
For vendors with a channel or partner element, we also design space to host partners as well as operators, since both matter to a hospitality-tech business at this show.
Getting into ExCeL: build-up timing
Hospitality Tech Expo sits in a busy autumn slot at ExCeL, so material-handling, rigging and the electrical contractor book up early and late orders attract surcharges. We confirm your space-only window, order rigging at the advance rate (around 28 days out), coordinate power and data for live demos with the appointed contractor, and crate to a slot that lands the stand finished and tested before doors open.
We design the electrical and data layout around your live platform from the start, because reliable connectivity is far cheaper to plan in than to add on site — and a demo that drops out in front of a buyer does real damage.
Reusing your stand between editions
The show is annual and most vendors return, so we build on a modular core, store it and refresh the graphics and demo configuration for each year's product. That keeps cost down and lets the stand track a fast-moving roadmap, and we keep your demo, power and data plan and contractor orders on file so each year's build starts from a known, working setup rather than a rebuild.
We also keep the demo current between editions, because hospitality tech moves fast and last year's screens undersell this year's product — so each return is a refresh, not a rebuild.
Next step for your Hospitality Tech Expo stand
Send us your space size, hall position and goals for Hospitality Tech Expo. You'll get a custom 3D concept and a fixed, all-inclusive quote within 48 hours — designed to ExCeL's rules, with structural sign-off built into the timeline if your design needs it. We build in-house and install at ExCeL London, so the stand you approve in the rendering is the stand that opens.
We also design and build exhibition stands for other major UK shows — see the full show calendar for retail tech, ecommerce & marketing and beyond, all with the same in-house team, fixed all-in pricing and full venue paperwork.