The booth is not the expensive part. The show is.
Exhibit managers who are new to a program tend to budget the fabrication number and treat everything else as rounding. Then the invoices arrive from the show contractor, the freight company, and the labor crew, and the number that got approved in the spring is not the number that gets paid in the fall.
None of these costs are hidden, exactly. They are just quoted by different companies at different times, which amounts to the same thing. Here is what to price before you sign anything.
Drayage
Drayage is the charge for moving your crates from the loading dock to your booth space, and back out again after the show. It is billed by weight, usually per hundredweight, with a minimum, and it is charged by the show’s general contractor, not by your exhibit house.
Two things make it painful. First, it is priced by weight, so a heavy custom build costs more to move than a lighter one, every single show, forever. Second, it is nearly impossible to avoid, because in most venues only the official contractor can move freight on the floor.
What to do: ask your exhibit house for the estimated crate weight during design, not after. A design decision made in March changes what you pay in drayage at every show that booth ever attends.
Installation and dismantle labor
Labor rules vary by venue, and in many convention centers the work must be done by union crews at rates set by the venue. Your exhibit house may supervise, but the hands doing the work are often local.
The variables that move this number are the build complexity, the number of hours, and whether any of those hours land on overtime. A booth that takes two crews a full day is a different labor bill than one that takes four hours, and that difference was decided at the design stage.
What to do: ask for an installation estimate in crew hours, not just dollars, and ask what happens if move-in runs into overtime.
Show services
Electrical, rigging, internet, cleaning, and material handling all come from the show contractor, on their own order forms, with their own deadlines. Most of them cost meaningfully more if you order late, and some of them cost more if you order on site.
What to do: get the exhibitor services kit as soon as it is available and order early. The discount deadline is real money for doing the same thing three weeks sooner.
Storage and refurbishment
Between shows, the booth lives somewhere. Ask who stores it, what it costs annually, who inspects it on return, and what refurbishment typically runs after a show.
A booth that comes back scuffed after every event, and gets touched up at cost every time, quietly changes the economics of owning versus renting.
Graphics, again
Graphics are the line item most likely to change between shows, because messaging changes. Budget for at least one reprint cycle per year if your product line or campaign moves. It is cheaper to plan for it than to rush it.
The one question that surfaces all of it
Before you sign, ask your exhibit house this: what will I be billed for by someone other than you?
A good partner will answer it in detail, because they have been on that call before and would rather have it in March than in October. A vendor who waves it off is handing you the surprise on purpose.