CES Vendors Kicked Out of Hotels For Showcasing Wares in Room 285
An anonymous reader writes to mention that a number of companies attempting to stretch their dollars by showing their new gear in hotel suites around Vegas during CES were kicked out of the rooms they paid for by CES organizers and hotel staff. According to sources as many as 30 small electronics companies may have been kicked out of The Venetian and The Palazzo on Thursday. One anonymous vendor claims they were coerced into paying $10,000 to the CEA lest they be kicked out of their (paid for) suite and barred from exhibiting or meeting with clients. 'States our source, "I asked the hotel staff if there were any limitations for using the suite. They said the only limitations were how many people were at our parties. They didn't say there were any limitations on displaying product. We set up our product on the first day. Then on Wednesday a cleaning person came in and reported what they saw to management. From there we got kicked out on Thursday."'
So... (Score:5, Interesting)
To sum up TFA:
1. CEA buys out Vegas for a week, attracting technology enthusiasts and large companions from across the globe.
2. Said organization is holding the balls of local buisness so tight, that they must bend over to anything the CEA demands.
(In this instance it was having The Venetian, The Palazzo kick out small/medium tech buisnesses who couldn't afford a CES floor spot onto the streets unless they paid the hefty fee of $10,000)
3. ???
4. Profit!
Another evil coorperation fucking over the little guy, nothing to see here folks.
It's like (Score:2, Interesting)
Lawsuit, anyone (Score:4, Interesting)
Monopolistic practices. Interference with trade. Lost and unrecoverable revenue opportunities. General fuckedupness.
I visted vendor room at VMWorld (Score:1, Interesting)
I visted at least four different vendors in their suits at the Venetian and The Palazzo for food, drink, and discussion while at VMWorld in 2008 (one was a large VMWare competitor). Some of party setups were very elaborate with a rotating guest count of over 50 people. One of the vendors even brought his own alcohol, although he had to sneak it in his luggage in multiple trips.
On a side note, I stayed at the Venetian, it is an awesome hotel with very large rooms. It would have been a decent stay with the exception of the "subtle" flower fragrance they inject in to the ventilation system, it triggered my allergies and brought on repeated use of my inhaler. I can kind of understand the psychological influence it might have on people gambling on the floor but why did they have to use it in the guest rooms as well? When I asked about it at the front desk, they acted as if I was the first person ever to complain about that.
Re:And this is news why? (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree, but remember this is Vegas. Normally to get kicked out of a hotel room, there is a "guests bill of right" which you list pretty effectively.
But Vegas runs by Vegas' rules. I think the concept that a Vegas hotel will ask a business or person to leave the premises b/c a more important patron doesn't want them there is time honored. Regardless of whether the first party is a customer or not. In that sense I don't think this story is new information on the underlying problem, but it's still aggravating.
Re:That is positively asinine. (Score:3, Interesting)
These vendors are probably registered at CES as customers rather than getting a booth. They probably have staff wandering around on the floor picking up clients and taking them back to their hotel room. Kind of like high-tech hookers, I guess.
CES doesn't like customers stealing other customers - they want those customers on the floor looking at the booths that bigger vendors paid big dollars for.
Re:You've hit the nail on the head (Score:3, Interesting)
Except they asked and the hotel answered. This would make the hotel a party to the crime, and puts them on dubious ground in making an 'unlawfulness' claim.
Also, if no money changes hands, there could be a grey area of what 'commercial activity' actually means. If all conduct of business is forbidden, then many of those rooms would be empty and they likely wouldn't have desks in them.
Re:That is positively asinine. (Score:1, Interesting)
It happens. I've seen it. I know, this is another anecdotal post, but I'm not the same AC from above.
Contracts anyone? (Score:4, Interesting)
Since I am not a lawyer, take all this with a block of salt.
It's all about the room contract. I assume the room contracts were between the small companies and the hotel. If so a review of the contract is in order.
It's possible that CEA had a contract with the hotel, but unless the hotel rewrote the contracts the small companies signed it's still a moot point.
It's also possible that CEA bought blocks of rooms (not reserved, purchased) and sold them directly to the small companies. If so the contracts between CEA and the small companies are probably in force. A good reading is still in order as it's hard to tell if there's anything in there about it.
If the contracts don't go your way then you might consider getting into he said / he said with hotel staff. And get out your wallet.
Pretty Standard Practice (Score:1, Interesting)
Actually, not allowing vendors to basically set up shop in their hotel rooms is pretty standard practice. The exclusion is likely in the hotel's fine print and/or part of city ordinances. In fact, the practice of bypassing the show floor on the cheap is so common in the trade show industry, there's a name for it. It's called suitcasing and most conventions have agreements with the hotels their attendees stay in that stipulate they will ask suitcasing vendors to leave. In fact, it's common to not even allow the companies that ARE exhibiting to set up additional space in their hotel rooms. They can have hospitality suites, and bring clients up for a drink and the like. But setting up your room as an exhibition suite is typically frowned upon and even the hotels, despite their desire for revenue, are reluctant to help suitcasers because it's more wear and tear on a typical room (which is why they charge for their event space). It also puts them at odds with the show organizer because they are basically contributing to the demise of that show. If every exhibitor can take a suite (at reduced cost to them but also reduced revenue to the show organizer), eventually the show goes away. This has happened before and, just as in BSG, it shall happen again.
Think of it this way. Your company (most likely a non-profit, not some big conglom) just spent millions of dollars on advertising, registration systems, staff, etc to entice companies from all over the world to come to your trade show. And many companies, some of them startups where the show is a make or break moment for them, paid thousands of dollars to take a booth, maybe sponsor an event or put up some ads touting their new product. Along comes a company that decides it's going to take advantage of all the dollars the trade show organizer and its exhibitors just spent to get everyone in one place at one time. Instead of participating on the show floor (and thereby adding revenue to the organization that got everyone there to begin with), they tell people to meet them in their hotel room.
Watch how quickly a show like CES (or Comicon or AVN) would go away if this sort of thing were left unchecked. You can argue the logic, but you can't say it's not standard or unusual.
Re:And this is news why? (Score:3, Interesting)
I mean I'm not a show vendor and I even know that doing such things is not ok with hotel management.
A lot of the vendors claim they had informal conversations with management who said it was okay:
I think the mention of them claiming to have had informal conversations is not really relevant to it - if anyone renting a hotel room asks are there any limitations - is the person they're talking to expected to mind-read that you would like to turn it into a sales-stand? ...or should he, to be safe, simply respond: ... You must not murder anyone in the room, rape anyone in the room, ...., kidnap, take hostages, ... (insert-endless-list-of-things-that you should NOT do - simply based on them either being illegal, or simply not being seen as desirable by management).
You must not destroy any fittings and furniture, you may not repaint the room, take out and/or put in new carpeting/flooring,
The simple question are there any limitations is most likely seen as 'obvious/unexpected limitations'. Most hotels rent out separate conference rooms for sales pitches and the like, and therefore would not - by default - expect anyone asking about limitations in using the room to use the normal room for sales pitches...
So, unless they explicitly asked management "are you fine with us using our room for displaying some of our goods to potential clients, and possibly trying to close deals with said clients?", I do not think that the management was out of line in saying there weren't any (unusual) limitations.
If you think the behaviour of the hotel was wrong here, expect your life to get an awful lot of more small print for anything from grocery shopping to using a public toilet, just so that the 'vendor' can introduce you to all possible limitations to your stay...
Maybe CES will go the way of COMDEX (Score:5, Interesting)
History repeating?
Re:And this is news why? (Score:3, Interesting)
"The Las Vegas Convention Center is not a hotel, so there is no "swindling viewers up to their private quarters" - in fact, the hotels that rent the largest number of suites to companies (Venetian, Bellagio, Wynn, etc) are no where near the convention center."
The Wynn is reasonably close to the LVCC; that's why many companies have suites there.
"Many of these companies have no presence at the convention, so how are they "swindling away" anyone? Many of the meetings/demos are private, have no interest/intention of showing their products in public yet, and have been set up between various parties well in advance, so it's not even taking away revenue from the CEA."
Ah, but many companies are fleeing the LVCC and moving to suites. Revenue is being taken away from the CEA. Logitech quit renting booth space a couple of years ago and moved to a cheaper meeting room in the LVCC. Creative Labs downsized their booth dramatically and held their meetings in a suite at the Wynn. XM/Sirius moved from the show floor to the Bellagio last year. These are just some examples in the industry I'm familiar with, but there are many, many more. This is why you probably noticed that the LVCC was a bit lonelier this year than it was last year, and if the trend continues, will get even more sparsely populated. There's still traffic at the LVCC, to be sure, but CEA sees the writing on the wall.
There's a secondary effect: as buyers get more used to visiting hotel suites, rather than going to the show floor, traffic to the LVCC is further reduced and creating even less incentive for vendors to place booths there. I didn't even need to buy a show pass this year.
Re:That is positively asinine. (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't believe what I said is so controversial. Some folks are downright mad (it's my first flamebait mod). I guess I see this differently.
If you don't have a booth at the show, how are you getting people up to your suite to look at your products? My guess is your walking around the show floor, handing out cards or fliers and inviting people up. If you're smart, you focusing on people who seem interested in your competitors products. So you're drawing people away from the vendors who paid to be in the show. Sounds like a free ride to me.
Now, if you setup in a hotel that had nothing to do with CES (wasn't hosting any part of the show) and you sent a mass email to your 40-50 customers saying, "hey, while at CES come down to the Rio, we've got a suite. We'll liquor you up, show you some of our new products and we'll party". I think that's a good idea. Like you said, good bang for the buck.
When I read it my immediate thought was that these people were down on the floor trolling for customers. Didn't sit right with me.
Because it isn't that unusual (Score:2, Interesting)
It's just as common as not, at least from my experience, as full time trade show worker for fifteen years before I semi retired back to farming. I have helped set up displays and product and arranged tables of literature and swag in any number of hotel rooms before, with the main action down in the exhibit halls or in the larger conference rooms, and I have always known it to go on and really..vendors meeting with clients in hotel rooms? Oh hey, look, I have the widget we are selling right here in my case... This is as common as anything, all over the planet, like as long as there have been hotels. A lot of times people make some contacts then they go back to the more private rooms to work out deals, etc, and they might still be looking at the products then. It just widely varies, and unless the show management and the hotels actually denied this practice in advance, and they can prove it, those folks got at least semi shafted. (guessing based on lack of more detail in TFA, it is all hearsay. Even if it was just coattail riding and they paid ces nothing, they still paid the hotel, and the hotel should have that restriction in some contract and be upfront about it in advance.)
They agreed to the terms at check-in (Score:4, Interesting)
I have stayed at the Venetian/Palazzo many times. When you check in, there is a four page agreement that appears on a little LCD screen that you have to sign. It specifically says you agree not to display merchandise or conduct business in your suite.
So this entire thread is in the category of Whining.
seems like a standard breach of contract lawsuit (Score:3, Interesting)