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September 17, 2025
Renting vs. Custom Built Trade Show Booths and Displays
Rentals suit short campaigns for their lower costs, easier setup, and convenient logistics. Meanwhile, custom-built booths are ideal for long-term strategies. You can use them repeatedly, so you’ll get a return on your investment as you attend more events.
When setting up for a trade show, you typically have two options: rent your booth or build one. Rentals are more affordable and easier to manage, but custom orders give you the flexibility to bring unique visions to life. While one isn’t “better” than the other, choosing often comes down to which approach supports your event strategy, campaign goals, and budget constraints.
To help you decide, we’ve broken down the pros and cons of booth rental versus custom-built displays. Find out which suits your strategies best and who to partner with in bringing your trade show booth designs to life.
Trade Show Booth Rental: Pros and Cons
Booth renting involves leasing a pre-designed, modular trade show booth from an exhibit vendor. It’s a faster, low-commitment option for small business owners with limited resources.
Instead of designing from scratch, booth renters just choose from existing displays. You can still change the logo, color scheme, and messaging, among other components, to match your personal brand.
Rentals also come with design assistance, setup, teardown, and delivery. With careful management, you can keep your overhead costs low without compromising your marketing efforts.
Booth Rental Pros
Booth Rental Cons
Lower Upfront Cost
Limited Customization
Faster Turnaround Time
Recurring Costs Add Up
Logistics Are Handled
Inconsistent Brand Presence
Modular Flexibility Across Events
Fewer High-End Finishing Options
No Long-Term Storage or Maintenance
Less Control Over Quality Assurance
Why Rent Trade Show Booths and Displays?
Whether you run your own business or work as an independent contractor, here are some reasons to consider renting your trade show booth:
Lower trade show booth rental cost: Renting doesn’t require new booth construction, resulting in lower upfront costs. For exhibitors primarily concerned with costs, it’s a practical way to manage financial risk and keep overhead to a minimum.
Faster turnaround time: Rental structures are already pre-built, so you won’t have to worry about fabrication timelines. They’ll save your event if you’re short on time.
Logistics handling: Rental packages usually come with shipping, storage, setup, and teardown. You won’t waste time going back and forth between vendors; your supplier should take care of it.
Modular flexibility across events: You can still reconfigure rental components to fit different booth sizes or venue layouts across shows.
No long-term storage or maintenance: Since you’re returning the booth after the show, there are no warehouse fees, refurbishing costs, or upkeep between events.
What are the Cons of Trade Show Booth Rental?
Before going all in with a booth rental model, you should also consider these disadvantages.
Limited customization: Although rentals are great for fast, easy setups, they rarely work for immersive, storytelling activations. You’ll have to follow the vendor’s limits on what you can change.
Recurring costs add up: When leasing booths, you’ll have to pay a rental fee every time. These recurring costs might lead to potentially lower earnings if you attend multiple shows annually.
Inconsistent brand presence: Customizing means working within the overall template of your rental booth. You might need to compromise some designs, which could result in elements possibly looking different from your usual displays.
Fewer high-end finishing options: Premium finishes, interactive features, or architectural elements are generally limited to custom-built options. Rentals are for plug-and-play templates.
Less control over quality assurance: There’s no guarantee you’ll get a rental booth in pristine condition with minimal to no wear and tear damage.
Custom-Built Trade Show Booths and Displays: Pros and Cons
Although fast and affordable, not every business would benefit from a booth rental. You might have the capacity to utilize custom booths if you already have an established clientele and a steady income stream.
Unlike booth renters, you’ll get to design and build your exhibit yourself. It’s a hands-on approach where you have more control over your display’s specs, components, and visuals. The fabrication process will take longer, but you can take this opportunity to deliver a unique, immersive experience that conveys your message.
Custom-Built Trade Show Booths Pros
Custom-Built Trade Show Booths Cons
Full Creative Control
Higher Upfront Investment
High-Impact Visual Storytelling
Longer Lead Times
Long-Term Cost Efficiency
Storage and Maintenance Costs
Consistent Brand Identity
Limited Flexibility Across Venues
Built-In Functional Features
Complex Logistics
Benefits of Ordering a Custom Trade Show Booth and Display
B2B research shows that booth design plays a major role in trade show performance. If your team environment wants a unique layout made specifically for your brand, ordering a custom trade show booth may be best.
Full creative control: Since you’ll operate independently, there are no vendor limitations. You can use whatever design layouts or elements suit your campaign. If you’re executing a narrative-driven theme, a custom build is your best bet.
High-impact visual storytelling: Most storytelling techniques require some level of customization. You can embed narrative-driven elements into your booth that engage prospects and highlight your offer.
Long-term cost efficiency: You won’t pay a rental fee anymore since you own your booth. The upfront costs might spike your overhead, but you’ll get a return on your investment as you attend more events.
Consistent brand identity: Having a standardized look across campaigns improves the chances of brand recall. Middle-of-funnel (MoFu) prospects are more likely to interact with your booth if they recognize identifiers like your logo, color scheme, or slogan.
Built-in functional features: With custom builds, you can integrate unique infrastructure into your booth. You’ll rarely find vendors that have live demo zones, meeting lounges, and custom AV setups.
Disadvantages of Custom Trade Show Booth and Display
Ordering a custom booth requires some level of financial stability. There won’t be a fixed rent, but you’ll have to pay for the actual booth yourself. And it’ll take time before you break even or get a return on your investments.
Without a safety net, you’ll end up compromising other trade show strategies to get new clients. Here are the downsides to consider.
Higher upfront investment: Expect technical designs to cost more. Standard laminate panels are pretty cheap, but LED walls, integrated tech, and specialty materials will drive up fabrication fees.
Longer lead times: Custom displays might take several weeks to finish. If you’re short on time, you might have no choice but to get a booth rental.
Storage and maintenance costs: You’ll need warehouse space and regular upkeep to prevent wear and tear between shows. The fees will quickly add to your ongoing costs. You might even need to hire third-party vendors for routine maintenance.
Limited flexibility across venues: A booth designed for a 20x20 space won’t fit in a 10x10 or 30x30 layout. Overall, you still have to follow the guidelines set by organizers.
Complex logistics: Shipping, installation, teardown, and reassembly often require multiple contractors. You’ll need to coordinate with them closely to avoid delays, which could be a hassle on multi-city tours.
FAQs About Booth Rental Pros and Cons
Generally, yes. Renting booths is a cost-efficient option for short-term or one-off campaigns. Apart from the lower upfront costs, you won’t have to worry about storage fees. That said, custom builds might give you better ROI in the long run if you frequently sign up for trade shows.
Only to an extent. Although you can customize modular elements like signage, AV, and lighting, you’re limited to the structure’s framework. It’s convenient if you prioritize speed and convenience over total creative control.
Rentals are generally easier to manage since they come with setup, teardown, and transportation. For the most part, you just have to pay the rental fee.
In Summary
Renting trade show booths is faster, cheaper upfront, and logistically easier, but it comes with recurring costs and limited creative control.
Custom-built displays offer full design freedom, stronger brand presence, and better long-term ROI. However, they demand higher upfront investment and more complex logistics.
Consider your management style. Do you prefer plug-and-play setups? Or do you want full control over storytelling and structure?
Factor in long-term business decisions. Assess if trade shows will become a part of your ongoing strategy, not just a one-off event.
For brands using commission-based models, booth flexibility and cost efficiency might influence how often and where you exhibit.
Design a Captivating, Engaging Trade Show Experience With Concierge Club
Exhibit rental vs custom build: which is better? Whether you should rent or build your own display depends on your brand goals. Weigh the pros and cons of booth rental and custom-built ones, then see which delivers a more lasting impression.
If you’re still on the fence, Concierge Club can help. Work with our experiential marketing to launch a trade show booth that both conveys your message and catches people’s attention. Get in touch with us today, and let’s start throwing around some ideas!
