Every product in the exhibitor kit has three prices. You only see one of them at a time, which is why most exhibitors never notice they're paying the wrong one.
The three tiers
Advance (discount) price. Available until the discount deadline, typically about three weeks before move-in. This is the real price — the one the contractor's business is built around.
Standard price. From the discount deadline until the show opens. Depending on the contractor and the item, expect somewhere between 20% and 30% more than advance.
On-site (floor) price. The highest tier — what most contractors call the on-site rate. Ordered at the service desk during move-in or the show. Often 30–50% above advance, sometimes more for labor and anything that needs to be trucked in. On-site orders also require a credit card at the time of order, and you'll stand in line to place them.
The gap is biggest on exactly the things first-timers forget: labor, forklifts, cleaning for the nights after the first, extra electrical drops, and the chair for the fourth staff member who got added to the trip late.
Why the kit is built this way
From the contractor's side, the advance deadline is when they plan the show: how many forklifts to stage, how much carpet to cut, how many laborers to call. Everything ordered after that is a disruption to a plan already made, and the price reflects it. There's nothing sinister about the tiers — but they are designed for the contractor's planning, not yours, and nobody on the contractor's side is paid to remind you.
What a missed deadline actually costs
Take a modest 10×20 booth with a fairly normal order: carpet and padding, a few furniture pieces, booth cleaning, a forklift spot for the crate, and eight hours of install labor plus six of dismantle. Advance pricing might land that order around $4,000. Place the same order the week before the show and you're looking at roughly $5,000. Place it on the floor and it can clear $6,000 — before anything goes wrong.
That $2,000 swing is the difference between a show that was over budget and one that came in under. It's also the easiest money you will ever save at a trade show, because it requires no negotiation, no vendor change and no compromise. It requires a date on a calendar.
The order-it-anyway strategy
Here's the move that separates experienced exhibit managers from everyone else, and it comes from reading the cancellation policy instead of the price list.
Most GSCs refund standard items — furniture, flooring, cleaning, AV, electrical materials, rental exhibits — in full if you cancel before a cutoff that's typically 30 days before move-in. Some categories (often AV, cleaning and furnishings) still refund in full down to about 14 days out. After move-in begins, nothing refunds.
Now line that up against the discount deadline, which is typically around 21 days out. The discount deadline falls inside the free-cancellation window.
So the uncertainty that makes people wait — "I don't know yet if we're bringing the demo unit, so I'll order the extra table on site" — is the wrong reason to wait. Order the extra table at the advance price. If you don't need it, cancel it before the cutoff and pay nothing. If you do need it, you've paid the lowest price on the sheet.
The rule: when in doubt, order it at advance pricing and put the cancellation cutoff on your calendar. The planner shows a "cancel by" date and refund percentage next to every line item for exactly this reason.
Three cautions:
- Custom items — custom-cut or custom-color flooring, custom graphics, anything fabricated for you — are usually non-refundable once production starts, and that can be well before the general cutoff. Order those only when you're sure.
- Design and consultation fees on rental exhibits generally don't refund.
- Refund timelines vary. Card refunds often post within a couple of weeks after the show; other payment methods can take four to six weeks. Put a reminder on it.
Which items have the biggest advance-vs-floor gap
Roughly in order of how badly it hurts:
- Labor. Overtime rates on the floor can be 40% above the advance overtime rate, and you'll usually be on overtime by then anyway.
- Forklift and rigging. Equipment plus operator, scheduled; late orders get whatever slot is left.
- Electrical. Usually a separate vendor with its own tiers; an extra 20-amp drop ordered on move-in day is a service call, not a line item.
- Cleaning. Cheap in advance, surprisingly expensive per night on site.
- Furniture and carpet. The classic 20–50% gap, and the one people notice first.
- Plants, signs, sign holders, easels. Small items with large percentage markups.
The items with their own deadlines
The GSC's discount deadline is the one everybody talks about, but on most shows the venue's exclusive vendors — electrical, internet, rigging, catering, AV, lead retrieval — run their own advance deadlines, often a few days either side of the GSC's. Each has its own form and sends its own invoice. Treat each as a separate deadline, because each one will charge you separately for missing it.
Three habits
- Order everything three weeks out, including the maybes. Then cancel the maybes before the free-cancellation cutoff.
- Put the exclusive-vendor deadlines on the same calendar as the GSC's. They're the ones that get missed.
- Keep the order confirmations. Every advance-priced order you placed becomes evidence during the invoice audit when a floor price shows up on something you ordered early.
The planner does all three automatically: it calculates the tiers from your show dates, shows the savings at risk for every open deadline, and flags any invoice line billed at a higher tier than the one you ordered in.
Frequently asked questions
- How much more does it cost to order on the show floor?
- Floor pricing commonly runs 30–50% above the advance price, and labor and equipment can be higher. On-site orders also require a credit card at the time of order.
- Can I cancel trade show service orders for a refund?
- Usually yes, in full, if you cancel standard items (furniture, flooring, cleaning, AV, electrical materials) before a cutoff that is typically 30 days before move-in. Custom items and design fees are often non-refundable, and nothing refunds once move-in begins.
- Should I order services I'm not sure I need?
- At advance pricing, yes. The discount deadline usually falls inside the free-cancellation window, so you can lock in the lowest price and cancel before the cutoff if plans change.
- Which trade show services have the biggest late-order penalty?
- Labor, forklift and rigging, electrical, and cleaning. Furniture and carpet have the most visible gap, but labor ordered on the floor is where budgets really break.
More exhibitor guides
Every figure in this guide is a typical range. Your show's exhibitor service manual governs the actual dates, rates and rules.