Organizers of the CEBIT computing trade fair in Germany accused hoteliers in the city of Hanover on Thursday of price gouging during the expo, which begins this year on March 15.
"We face increasing, fierce criticism from the exhibitors over this," a fair spokesman said.
"Cost pressure on the companies is rising, and that leads to more pressure on us," he said.
He said the fairgrounds company could only appeal to the good grace of hotel owners to reduce room rates to normal levels.
Many hotels in the city have tripled their room rates, to the outrage of visitors representing small electronics-industry companies from Taiwan and other places who also have to pay dearly for seven days of stand rent, design and carpenters.
The premier of Lower Saxony state, Christian Wulff, said the "exaggerated pricing" endangered the future of the expo in the state's main city. His remarks were reported on Thursday in the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
Last month a CEBIT spokesman said he hoped he could soon give details of a last-minute special offer by hoteliers of lower rates, but there has been no announcement.
The fairs industry in Germany is a major source of income for big city hotels, with business people arriving from around the world, many of them big spenders on corporate expense accounts.
Humbler visitors often choose to commute daily by train to the fair site from other cities for the sake of savings.
CEBIT is the world's main combined fair devoted to computing, software and telecommunication products.
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