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CES Vendors Kicked Out of Hotels For Showcasing Wares in Room
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."'
I mean I'm not a show vendor and I even know that doing such things is not ok with hotel management.
this should be a YRO article
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.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
Vendors have been showing their products in hotel hospitality suites for decades. I've never been to any trade show yet where this wasn't the case. I don't know what the hell CES management is thinking if they consider this any kind of a problem.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
They were kicked out for placing improperly licensed chocolates on hotel pillows.
I would love to make a "Bob's Country Bunker" reference, but it would only make sense if you go to the Philly Folk Fest.
Wi-fi and tables are available at the bookstore but they don't expect you to run your business, host clients, create displays on the tables (seen this done before!). CES and Vegas in general benefit from having a formal process and presenteres paying a fee and going through a process. Of course the hotel (and Vegas and CES) wouldn't want this.
AVN holds the porn convention at the same time in vegas. do they have the same rules about not working in your rooms? maybe the demo was a rogue AVN guest and not CES?
Probably scared the crap out of the DRM mafia.
I guess they really want to tighten up their grasp at other companies money.
I've always heard about these types of 'parties' from all the shows, especially CES and EEE.
Even Microsoft and Sony (among many others) do these for some stuff.
The smaller vendors have utterly relied on being able to do this.
Having a small booth in a 'busy' place like that can make it really hard to do a presentation of your product, not to mention restricting access when you want to keep it limited.
Seems a bit odd (or greedy) for them to start cracking down on it now.
The CEA can institute whatever rules it wants on its own show property, but it has no business or right to interfere with anything (ahem) going on in local Las Vegas hotel rooms.
Similarly, unless the hotel informed them of some restriction, and as long as they abided by all of their usual rules, they have no basis for throwing them out, at all. I hope these companies fight this. At the very least, there's remedy in small-claims action. And obviously they should dispute any credit card charges from the hotel.
They're probably desperate from the declining numbers, and revenue, and are in financial trouble.
Monopolistic practices. Interference with trade. Lost and unrecoverable revenue opportunities. General fuckedupness.
CEA probably could have saved a lot of grief by warning these vendors ahead of time that it was going to do this sort of thing. Sure a number of the vendors would have worked around the rules, but that'll happen next year despite the crackdown. The vendors will just be a bit more clever.
Further, this just reeks of bad communication and incompetent handling by CEA and the respective hotels. If I were involved with the decision, I'd be worried about breech of contract suits from the affected vendor firms. Just from my extremely crude reading of the article, this doesn't sound like CEA or some of the hotels did due diligence in upholding their side of the exhibition contracts.
Finally, these sorts of antics show up when an organization is tight on money and starts ignoring long term costs and harm. One wonders if the CEA will go bankrupt in a few years.
"In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I'm watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all." Casino (1995), Robert De Niro as Sam "Ace" Rothstein:
... no competition is allowed ;-)
I had to read this at least three times to figure out they meant "wares" not "warez".
I was thinking, video game modchips and rom images, or torrented movies playing in the hospitality suite?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
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.
I've seen this happen with Siggraph. The contract that Siggraph had with the hotels said that no vendor suites would be allowed for display of products or meetings with actual or prospective customers without explicit written permission from Siggraph management. All vendor suites had to be booked through Siggraph.
In, I think 1994, several vendors had such suites and publicized them at the exhibition. Siggraph management charged the hotel the standard suite fee for each of those vendor suites. Collected it too. I don't know if the hotels managed to get it back from the vendors or not.
with smaller companies will find anyway to save revenue if possible..
For example, the cost of the mandated "union" to plug in the 300 watts of trade show display booth lights into an electrical outlet is $150. An an "always on" Internet at the shows are typically $500+ when if you can get the same connectivity in your room for $10.
We run our demo at the show(s) over the internet by tethering our mobile phone internet connection- instead of paying the overinflated price for broadband at conventions. By attending as little as two tradeshows a year more than justifies the annual costs of the data plans from any major mobile phone network.
We are proud to announce that we will be holding a similar event in Lost Springs, WY and that there will be absolutely no restriction on what participants may do. Also, the fees we are going to charge will be ridiculously low compared to what it costs in Vegas.
Stay tuned for updates.
You can look here for directions :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Springs,_Wyoming
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Lost+Springs&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=32.252269,72.158203&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Lost+Springs,+Converse,+Wyoming&ll=42.863886,-105.314941&spn=0.93208,2.254944&z=9
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
One side is basically CEA not getting their dues. Setting up shop in a suite is essentially similar to setting up a small booth for the price of a suite and food.
How fair is it to the other companies that had to pay the dues that there are companies displaying products without paying the 10,000 fee?
Me, personally, I am an indie game developer. I am sure you have all heard of me. What? You have not heard of me? That is probably because I do not have the money to pay to get myself publicity through channels such as E3 or other means like that. I can see where the publicity is good for the people that do not have the money.
One thing I did not see mentioned: Did these smaller companies make previous arrangements with CEA before booking the suites to show their products? If they DID make previous arrangements with CEA to display their items at CES and then just did not pay the fees, and instead just held their own display in a suite, than that is wrong.
They also do not state what kind of suites these guys were staying in. It could have been the cheap 150 a night rooms, or it could have been a penthouse. That piece of information also makes a difference. Let me explain: a penthouse is super expensive. I am sure if you shopped around, you could finda penthouse for 1000 a night. Let's see, one week is 7 days, which is 7000 if you do good shopping. If you can afford that, then save a little more and you will be good to display.
Like I said, it truly depends on a couple factors: were they displaying this stuff in nice suites that could help prove that they could have afforded the 10,000 if they had gotten cheaper rooms? Did they make previous arrangements with CEA and then display items in their rooms?
There is just too much information left out of this and it is clearly one sided with the lack of information.
One of the sources asked if there were any restrictions to being in the room, but if I were to call one of those places right now and ask what restrictions I had for a show, the hotel clerk may not be able to realize that I am actually a business.
Do not get me wrong, I am not one sided here. I come from the side of the person that would be paying for the $150 room and not being able to afford the 10,000 fee. With how many small companies they said had to leave (I think it was around 30), that means that there is an incredibly small chance that all of those companies were staying in Presidential Suites or something like that.
Also, somebody else in the comments pointed out that hotel room showings were pretty standard and normal for these shows. That is where it does flip the script a little bit.
I am saying that this sucks for both sides. The smaller companies have to pack up their stuff when they have been accustomed to being able to do the hotel room showings and not told ahead of time that they can't do them.
On the same note: I am sure it is not cheap to be able to take over a portion of Vegas to throw together a massive show like CES. Where does that money come from? I bet alot of that money comes from vendor fees. If 30 vendors did not pay the fee, that is $300,000 that CEA could use to continue the show.
The world is how you make it
I'm guessing they got more for turning the guests in than they would have for cleaning the rooms for a couple of days.
mmmm...forbidden donut
I am not surprised at all that the hotels kicked em to the curb. Makes sense, you have a bunch of techies that do not gamble like other conventioneers do, CES makes money (and continues to beable to have the CES because of the income), and no offense to the small players, but if you can't pay/are unwilling to pay to get on the floor, then perhaps you don't belong at CES.
From the Hotel's perspective, the removal makes complete sense. CES is bringing in money to them, paying them to have X amount of floor space, which X floor space would be larger if these small players paid to be on the floor, and are instead paying for just a room.
Which sounds more likely in Vegas: CES is really upset not to have the money and asks the small player(s) to be removed, or the Hotel is upset enough to ask them to leave because they're not making the extra money. I'm going with the latter. Vegas hotels will say one thing and then change their mind, or the front of the hotel person was incorrect on the "restrictions" (possibly even using tricky wording to think they have the freedom to have their displays in their room). My money is totally on hotel management getting wind of it and taking it upon themselves to "solve" the situation.
as "Vendors Kicked Out of Hotels For Showcasing Whores in Room".
Using the premises for an unlawful purpose or act
My bet is that Las Vegas zoning code specifically restricts commercial activity from hotel rooms themselves. I've never looked at the Las Vegas zoning code, but I have looked at the codes in my area of the country -- and hotels are only allowed to have certain activities in certain areas of the hotel.
Commercial activity in the rooms themselves is verboten in every code I've seen (about a dozen), although again, I've never looked at the Las Vegas zoning code (or any other Las Vegas laws that might or might not apply, including laws on lodging houses of various kinds, health codes, etc).
Support a few technologists in Washington.
Not mentioned in the article was did they pay for one of the (usually discounted) block of rooms CES had set aside. Usually large conventions set aside a block of rooms at a discount for people participating in the convention. Their guarantee subsidizes the cost of these rooms, and give them a bit more control over what goes on there. Doesn't make their actions less ass-hat, but does let me understand why the CES would have that much sway over the occupants of the rooms, as they might have paid for (up to half) part of the rooms' cost.
Shouldn't they simply have warned them and required them to stop or at least refunded there money? Is it really fair for someone to take your money decide what your doing doesn't suite them and kick you out without so much as a dime in return? Was there any information up front about product showcasing being against there policies? *sigh* only in the united states.
...CES 'kicked people out of hotel suites' is patently delusional. The hotels kicked them out. Random people cannot kick people out of hotel rooms.
Whether or not the hotels can do that is a separate point. You cannot just randomly kick people out of their rooms for no reason.
While a lot of you are talking about 'changing agreements' after the fact, I'm not entirely certain hotels could actually dictate the purposes for which you could use a hotel room even with a contract in advance.
Everyone assuming this is a simple matter of contract law needs to look up 'innkeeper statutes'...people who operate hotels cannot just randomly make whatever rules and regulations they want about residents, even in advance.
If I walk up to a hotdog vender, and want to buy a hotdog and have the money, and he doesn't like my hat, he doesn't have to sell me a hotdog. Normal businesses can refuse service to anyone except for specific reasons.
If I want up to a hotel, however, and have the money, they do have to give me a room if they have one, unless they think I'm going to use it for some unlawful purposes. Hotels are not like other businesses, they're not even like apartments...they are considered public accommodations, and the reasons you can refuse service are only the reasons specifically outlined in law.(1)
There are a lot of other regulations about what 'innkeepers' can, and cannot, do. For example, in most places, they can't actually disallow non-renters from visiting a renter who authorizes them. Your parties have to obey fire code, and cannot be disruptive, but that's it.
I know a lot of people assume 'Companies can do anything as long as they say it advance', but 'innkeeping' is actually heavily regulated.
Casinos in Vegas have, for exactly this reason, a clearly defined area that is 'the hotel' (Where innkeeping laws hold sway), vs. 'the casino' (Where gambling laws hold), vs. the rentable floor areas (Which are just like renting a warehouse or something) vs. the rest of the building (Which falls more under the 'mall' part of the law, being open to the public.)
Oh, and some people may be unaware...The Venetian and The Palazzo are the same building. They are two hotels next to each other, with one casino in the middle of them, and one (huge multi-story) exhibit area behind the casino, along with a bunch of other stuff back there like the Blue Man Group theater. (I stayed at the Venetian once.)
1) Someone's about to say 'Hey, didn't hotels used bar unmarried couples from staying, and to have 'house detectives who attempted to make sure that people weren't using hotels for affairs?'. Yes, and having sex outside of marriage used to be illegal, making that being 'using a hotel room for unlawful purposes', until the Supreme Court struck those laws down, and hotels had to stop.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
CNC , which stands for CNC's Not CES is a fantastic new high-tech consumer gadgetry trade exhibition that'll be going on next year in Las Vegas, coinciding with the closed CES show. Bring your stuff!
Congratulations on CES purchasing controlling rights to the Venetian and Palazzo hotels such that they can control what you can or cannot do in your rented suite! What's next, you won't be able to fly into Vegas unless you have a CES badge?
"showcasing wares" - is that what the kids are calling it these days?
Check the sign in forms for the Hotel, unless otherwise stated or a refund is issued, let them kick you out then join together in a class action law suit. Now tell me that wouldn't be hilarious.
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.
Ward
. Silence! Be thankful thy species is unpalatable! .
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.
History repeating?
This has been common business practice for a really long time at most trade shows I went to in Vegas in the 90's.
The trade show producer doesn't offer a way for smaller companies to get into most shows. Even if they did, a good idea would be knocked off in months in most cases.
Smaller vendors don't have the budget for a booth and meet their customers anyway they can. It's hard to blame them.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
So, this mean that we'll not see it for another 10 yrs ?
The small companies become the large....
CES may have temporary authority over the public floor space where booths are set up, but seriously who is CES to tell anyone what they can or cannot do in their private hotel room? Not only is it an invasion of privacy, it is also a disgusting arrogant display of greed.
As a NAB exhibitor for more than a decade I can assure you that the same holds true there. You can show stuff in a hotel suite, even if you're not on the show floor, but you still have to pay NAB or they'll shut you down. The CEA wasn't saying that they couldn't display product in the hotel suite, but that they had to pay for the privilege. And $10000 plus the cost of the hotel suite is _cheap_ compared to what it costs to be on the show floor once you factor in the floor space cost, cost of utilities, having to use the expensive show labor, etc.
While IANAL, it seems to me that the small vendors who were kicked out of the hotels have a claim against the hotels, not against CES. After all, it was hotel management who had them removed.
So they can sue the hotels, who will then think twice next time about kicking out paying guests. At that point, CES can either
-pay off the hotels so they will explicitly not allow the use of the suites as private showrooms
-or do nothing, at which point the "parallel tech expo" can happen again.
I guess this may take two or three years to make its way through the courts, but if a few of the evicted vendors sue, I expect it to happen.
C - the footgun of programming languages
Is anyone REALLY surprised? This is the place that embraces the exploitation of others. If you don't want to get shaken down then don't go to Vegas. I sure as hell don't.
Vegas is a shithole
If you are paying a premium for a stand in the show when you could just pay a suite in the hotel to get the same results, then you are stupid and deserve to go bankrupt.
I have gone to more conventions than I remember, in each of them there are always people who walk around handling their business cards to everyone. It has always been accepted as the norm for smaller companies.
Something that's terribly wrong about the way business is done in America these days is that so many corporations believe they have an absolute right to expected profits. "Hey, according to my business plan I should get X% profits, if I don't get that it's because someone is STEALING from me!".
That's just plain rape, what part of "No, I'm not interested in your product" don't they understand?
ces, enjoy your bad publicity. also you will need to promote your next round with your own money, for we, the people on the internet wont be linking your greedfuck show around.
Read radical news here
From how the TFA reads, the rooms were reserved, and paid-for, in advance by the attendees. Upon their removal, it does not sound as though there was any refund for the remainder of their stay. If there was no cite-able misconduct from the attendees, the hotels are setting themselves up for some annoying legal activity. I say 'annoying' because I am sure a Vegas hotel can pony up much nicer attorneys than a small tech start-up.
An internal system operation returned the error "The operation completed successfully.".
Try tipping the cleaning staff and maybe they'll keep their mouths shut.
I can say [REDACTED] anytime I want!
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.)
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.
If nothing else, the companies that booked directly with the hotels and were not getting CES/CEA special rates should be able to initiate chargebacks (because odds are high it was all paid for on someone's credit card). They contracted for a service, that service was aggressively not delivered.
The drawback to this is the possibility of not being able to book into the same hotel in the future, at least not under the same name. Similarly, if the hotels share information (any legal issues with that?) possibly being effectively blacklisted from that whole area of Vegas.
If you want to get lawyers involved, there may be other claims as others have pointed out, but that probably gets more risky and potentially expensive.
fencepost
just a little off
This is why I always put up those little "Do not disturb" Signs on my room
Seriously, could have prevented the whole deal.
Should be easily dealt with in court.
-- Programming with boost is like building a house with lego. It's a cool but I wouldn't want to live in it
I am an event manager with 7+ years experience doing business in Vegas during CES. Every hotel venue that I contacted when planning for CES 2010 stipulated that unless my clients, or one of their partner exhibitors, had space on the show floor they would be unable to rent us a hotel suite due to their contractual obligation with CEA. CEA manages the hotel blocks for CES, and in order to be a "partner hotel" (on the maps, shuttles, or advertised on the CES lodging link) the hotels must agree to not permit any "renegade" events- no meetings, no product displays. CEA claims it is to 'preserve the atmosphere of the show floor' or something similar.
The better hotels- those with suite spaces that are appropriate for meetings and showcases- have further given teeth to their policies by not allowing any rearranging of furniture. Sure, you can pay upwards of 3k for a suite, but you can't move the bed to display your hardware... in years past this was possible if you tipped the housekeeping staff well. Not so any more, management is writing it into contracts that furnishings are not to be moved.
Due to economic times, we wound up booking a banquet room in a restaurant, cutting 1/5 of our budget from last year. As CEA has less financial grip on restaurants, my guess is that this will become the only option as long as CES continues to exist.
An event planner- a professional dedicated to thorough reading of contracts and getting it all in writing- would have been a small price to pay for companies who brought their wares to Vegas and were kicked out. Just sayin'.
Isn't the $7.35 an hour they make to rifle through my belongings sufficient?
I can see how this would happen. Until last year, I was a very very high up at a relatively large-ish convention. About 15,000 attendees. We took up a convention center, a main hotel and about a dozen secondary hotels, plus filled many tertiary hotels which we didn't "control" in any way.
Anyhow, the deal with the main hotel was that the convention got control of all the suites. Period. I used to have one for my personal use which was a nice perk. We used the rest for other VIPs. We also got control of all the regular rooms. Our room block was the whole freaking hotel. We had total access to the reservation list for each room.
Regular people who wanted suites were completely shut out. Likewise, outside vendors were also shut out of using one of the suites. We didn't have a lot of demand for that, but we did have vendors trying to sell out of their rooms. After all a hotel room was much cheaper than signing up as one of our official exhibitors and in theory would be free of our content restrictions.
The problem was that they -and for that matter official exhibitors too- were not allowed to sell anything from the hotel rooms. You can entertain. You can display stuff on a very limited basis, but no selling. The hotel forbade that on rules that had to do with pandering but also applied to merchandise sales. We had people who broke that rule and the hotel did kick them out. They didn't ask us first. They just kicked them out right away.
We as the client had total control, but it was still their hotel and their rules. IF we had gone to the hotel manager and said "That guy in 1404 is a problem. Make him go away." I am sure it would have happened. We never really had to.
It's also worth noting that hotel managers and front desk staff swap shifts from day to day. It is entirely possible to check in and bring in a big even on (say) a Thursday and by Sunday when you are wrapping up, the people at the front desk have NO clue who you are and no understanding that you just booked their hotel solid for a week and wrote them a fat check.
It's possible the companies in this case talked to manager A, who OKed it. But weekend manager B came in and shut the thing down.
What SHOULD have happened is that the exhibitor companies should have gone through the hotel sales office and gotten a contract and BEO and all that fun stuff. At that point, there's a paper trail. Doesn't mean the hotel will not cheat you. They could. But booking a regular suite without that and risking your business's entire CES marketing venture on it... wow. Risky. It sounds like it bit some folks this year. CES has made some examples for next year's booking.
Sig for hire.
And this is why Intel, AMD, and other large players get away with the exact behavior that got these little guys kicked out of their hotel rooms. I've read on various hardware sites over the years of Intel and AMD specifically taking key clients to hotel rooms for private demonstrations of beta hardware platforms. The only reason CEA (and thus the hotels) lets this slide is because they (Intel and AMD) have massive booths on the floor as well. So, if you have a booth, you can also do whatever the fuck product demos you want to in as many hotel rooms as you want, as long as you have paid for floor space at the show. As always, follow the money.