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HOTELEX Shanghai Guide: Hospitality Show, Visitors and Leads

By Ilyas Kerbal,

Visitors and exhibitors talking at a hospitality and foodservice equipment trade fair stand
Photo: Monmar Comunicació, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

HOTELEX Shanghai is one of the biggest hospitality and foodservice trade shows in the world. The 2026 edition covered 400,000 m² with more than 3,500 exhibitors and over 250,000 trade visitors from 130+ countries. China’s café and restaurant-chain boom shows up everywhere on the floor, from coffee machines to franchise resources. For suppliers to hotels, restaurants and chains, the HOTELEX attendee list is a concentrated view of buyers across Asia.

This guide covers what to expect at the spring 2027 edition.

HOTELEX at a glance
Industry Hospitality / foodservice
City Shanghai, China
Venue National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC), Shanghai
Dates Spring, 2026: 30 Mar–2 Apr
Frequency Annual
Moves between cities? No (Shanghai flagship; sister editions elsewhere)
Typical scale ~180,000 attendees · ~3,000 exhibitors
Visitor ticket Trade pre-registration online (no fee published)
App / platform Online registration + WeChat (no dedicated app found)
Official website hotelex.cn

Details checked in October 2026. Dates, prices and venues can change between editions, so confirm on the official HOTELEX Shanghai website before you book travel.

What’s at HOTELEX?

The show is organised into 12 themed sectors, including:

  • Commercial kitchen and catering equipment
  • Coffee, tea and beverage equipment
  • Bakery, ice cream and dessert
  • Tableware and hotel supplies
  • Fine food and ingredients
  • Bar and drinks
  • Franchise and chain-store resources, plus hotel tech

More than 50 onsite events run during the show, including the World Coffee Championships, latte-art battles and culinary and bartending contests. They’re a big part of why senior operators turn up.

The National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, home of HOTELEX

HOTELEX fills the NECC in Hongqiao every spring. Photo: Shwangtianyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Where and when

The flagship HOTELEX is held every spring at the NECC in Hongqiao, Shanghai. The 2026 edition ran from 30 March to 2 April, and the 2027 show is expected around the same time of year. The organiser runs regional HOTELEX editions in other Chinese cities, but the Shanghai show doesn’t move.

Who attends HOTELEX

Visitor What they’re buying Who sells to them
Hotel owners, operators and purchasing managers Supplies, equipment, tech Hotel suppliers, software vendors
Restaurant, café and chain-store operators Kitchen equipment, coffee machines, ingredients Equipment makers, food suppliers
Foodservice distributors and dealers Product lines Manufacturers entering China
Franchise owners and investors Brands and concepts Franchise brands
Interior designers for hospitality Furniture, tableware, lighting Design-led suppliers
Baristas, chefs and bartenders Competitions and tools Coffee and bar equipment brands

Booking meetings at HOTELEX Shanghai? Start with the right names. I’ll put together the HOTELEX Shanghai attendee and exhibitor list with job titles, company details and LinkedIn profiles, formatted for your CRM. Ask me for a quote

Registration

Trade professionals register online in advance. The organiser doesn’t publish a visitor fee, so contact [email protected] for the current policy. It’s a trade-only event.

Exhibitor information without an app

No dedicated app was found. Registration and exhibitor information run through hotelex.cn and the WeChat channels of the organiser, Shanghai Sinoexpo Informa Markets. With 3,500 exhibitors across 12 sectors and a visitor base that includes many small distributors, sorting out the chain operators and large hotel groups from everyone else is the real work.

Pros and cons

Pros Cons
Biggest hospitality supply show in Asia Huge and noisy; contests crowd the aisles
Strong coffee and café-chain focus Many small domestic distributors
Competitions attract senior operators Mostly Chinese-language
Good for finding Chinese OEM equipment makers Visitor fee policy unclear in English
Informa’s international buyer programmes Overlaps with FHC Shanghai and other F&B shows

The app won’t let you export. I can help. If you need HOTELEX Shanghai participant data in a spreadsheet instead of a locked app, tell me which segments you care about and I’ll build the file. Get the HOTELEX Shanghai data

How to prepare for HOTELEX

  1. Pick your sectors. Coffee, bakery, kitchen and hotel supplies attract quite different buyers.
  2. Target chain operators first. One chain decision can mean hundreds of outlets.
  3. Use the competitions to meet operators in a less salesy setting.
  4. Prepare Chinese materials and a WeChat contact.
  5. Compare with FHC Shanghai if your product leans more towards food and drink than equipment.
  6. Follow up quickly with pricing, because chain buyers compare many suppliers.

FAQ

When is HOTELEX Shanghai?

Every spring at the NECC. The 2026 edition ran 30 March to 2 April; check hotelex.cn for 2027 dates.

Is HOTELEX free?

Trade visitors register online in advance; the organiser doesn’t publish a visitor fee.

Does HOTELEX have an app?

No dedicated app was found. Registration runs via hotelex.cn and WeChat.

Can I get the HOTELEX exhibitor list?

The website lists exhibitors but doesn’t export contacts. I can build an enriched HOTELEX list for your team.

Walk into HOTELEX Shanghai with a target list

If HOTELEX Shanghai is on your calendar, the time to build your target list is now, not on the plane. Send me the event and your ideal customer profile and I’ll put together an enriched list of the people and companies that will be there, ready for your CRM and your outreach sequences.

Ask for your HOTELEX Shanghai attendee list

Sources

Photo credits