Ideal home show — Local services in London

I recently participated in the Ideal Home Show as an exhibitor for the first time, and unfortunately, it turned out to be a regrettable experience. They charged me £1,700, but the event was poorly attended. In an attempt to make it appear busier, they made entry free. However, most attendees were local residents or pensioners who were simply looking for a place to relax and grab a drink rather than shop or engage with exhibitors.

On the first day, two or three sales team members came to my stall, pressuring me to rebook for future shows. When I said I needed time to think, they escalated their tactics, claiming stalls were selling out quickly and urging me to sign immediately. They even assured me that I could cancel anytime. Trusting their word, I signed without thoroughly reading the contract.

Now, I’ve received an invoice from them demanding an additional £500 for no valid reason. Their aggressive sales tactics and misleading promises are unacceptable.

If you’re a small business considering working with this company, I urge you to be extremely cautious. They seem more interested in squeezing money out of exhibitors than fostering a successful event. Shame on you, Ideal Home Show, for taking advantage of...

Underwhelming really. My first time and not at all what I expected. I was hoping for inspiring home design ideas, some mock rooms, storage ideas, what's modern and up and coming etc.

It seemed to consist of mostly stalls selling items you often see on home shopping channels. Did get a few dish cloths at a reasonable price... after seeing them being sold on no less then three stalls.

The food hall was very well stocked with different offerings if you like Gin (£6.50), prosecco (£9.50), Gin and... Gin. Although I did have my fist deepfried icecream and that was pretty amazing. Nowhere to sit to eat so many people were just sitting on the floors.

For a home design ideas and modern room designs consider a stroll around an IKEA... who have reasonable food, plenty of places to sit and who also sell reasonably priced dish cloths.

Or, sit at home and scroll though Pintrest, before buying everything you need on amazon for a fraction of the price.

Oh, the free 'goodie bag' was a ag of pormotial leaflets and a hand gel (all of which are free on the show floor) wast of a...

Gone massively down the pan Exhibitors downstairs are uninterested and half asleep, don’t want to engage at all. Only one exhibitor was friendly and had something innovative to show. No gardening items outside of the usual rattan seats at a spring show?! Upstairs is like a tat bazaar with only one or two unusual stalls - the rest is all stock from Shein & Ali Express at treble the price. Food and drink had some really nice products, food stands seemed clean and decent - but not enough picnic benches for people to enjoy the best part of the whole day! Terrible planning. Aperol spritz stall offered us our drink in a plastic child’s sand bucket for the price of £35, we could have also had the pleasure of sitting on the floor to drink it because again not enough seats to go round. We called it a day at that point....