Rental Tablets

Rental Tablets is a London hire company that supplies iPads and the surrounding event kit to exhibitors and organisers, and it has been running since 2011. The premise is narrow and clearly stated: if you are putting on a trade show stand, a conference, or a presentation and you need a handful of tablets that arrive ready to use, Rental Tablets does that one thing and little else.

The stated ambition, to be Europe's largest iPad hire operation, is a big claim, but the site backs the focus up with a proper product catalogue and a booking flow rather than a single page of promises.

The core rental is the iPad itself, across several models, so a customer can match the hardware to what the app or the demo actually needs. Around that sits the part that tends to matter more at a live event: the stands. There are floor stands, desk and desktop versions, an executive option, and brandable ones you can skin with your own graphics. That range tells you the company understands its buyer. A tablet lying flat on a table is useless on a busy stand; a branded floor stand at eye level is a working tool.

Connectivity is handled too, and this is the detail that reassured me most. Venue wifi at exhibition halls is notoriously unreliable, so Rental Tablets offers 4G mobile routers built on the EE network and says it has tested them at Excel, Olympia, and Earls Court. Naming the actual halls is a small thing. It is the sort of specificity that suggests real deployments behind the copy rather than a stock description written once and never touched again.

Beyond the tablets, the catalogue extends into AV headsets and Zettle and PayPal point-of-sale systems, so a stand that needs to take payments or run audio for a demo can source those from the same supplier. Units are dispatched fully charged and pre-loaded with the apps and data the customer specifies, which removes the scramble of setting up devices on site the morning a show opens.

The catalogue and how it reaches your stand

The site is structured as a working shop. There is a browsable product catalogue, a Hire Equipment section, and a Quote List that lets a planner assemble what they need and request pricing, which fits the way event budgets actually get approved. A General FAQs page covers ordering, payment, delivery, and insurance in plain terms. One point there is worth flagging because Rental Tablets is upfront about it: it does not insure the iPads and recommends customers arrange their own cover.

That is an honest disclosure to put in writing, and it saves an awkward conversation if a device goes missing during a busy show.

iPad stands and 4G routers

The stand range is the part of the Rental Tablets offering that separates a specialist from a general electronics rental firm. Choosing between a desktop cradle for a seated demo, an executive stand for a client meeting, and a brandable floor unit for footfall is a genuine decision an exhibitor makes, and having all of those under one roof is convenient. Pair that with the tested 4G routers and a stand can run independently of whatever the venue provides.

For anyone who has watched a demo collapse because the hall wifi buckled under a few thousand phones, that combination is the difference between a stand that works and one that does not.

Same-day delivery and collection

Logistics get equal weight, which is right for kit that has to land on a specific date. Rental Tablets offers same-day delivery within the M25 and next-day delivery across the rest of the UK. Customers can have equipment posted, dropped off by the company's own drivers, or collected in person from its operational base described as near the Olympic site in Leyton Industrial Estate.

Three fulfilment routes give a planner room to work around a tight setup window, and same-day cover inside the M25 is a real asset when a show brief changes at the last minute. Collection in person also suits a smaller organiser who wants to test the devices before a launch, and posting works for a regional job where a driver run would not be economic. The base near the Olympic site puts the company close to the main east London exhibition venues, which shortens the trip to a lot of the shows its customers are likely to be exhibiting at.

Getting hold of someone is easy, which for a business built on hitting delivery deadlines is not a minor point. A phone number is published, there are two email addresses for sales and general enquiries, a full postal address at Kemp House on City Road, and a Contact page carrying a form. The Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy are both present as well. Someone deciding whether to trust a stranger with the tech that fronts their exhibition stand can reach a person quickly and see who they are dealing with, and that transparency counts.

On outside opinion, there is a gap, and it is worth being straight about it. A search turned up no third-party reviews for Rental Tablets itself. It does surface a similarly named firm, Tablet Rentals Ltd, which carries a set of Trustpilot reviews at a roughly four-star level, but that looks to be a separate company at a different address, so it would be wrong to lend its rating to this one.

A buyer should judge Rental Tablets on its own record and ask directly for references or examples of past events it has covered.

The site itself is detailed and clearly built by people who know the exhibition circuit, but the independent voices that would normally back up a hire company's reliability are not turning up in search. For a low-value order that gap probably will not sway the decision either way. For a large multi-device booking tied to a fixed event date, it is worth a phone call to talk through the specifics and confirm availability before booking.

An event planner or trade show exhibitor who needs a batch of iPads that arrive charged, pre-loaded, mounted on the right stands, and backed by their own 4G connection has a credible, well-scoped option here, particularly for a show inside the M25 where same-day cover applies. The sensible next step is to call the published number or build a Quote List on the site, and to ask specifically about router performance at the chosen venue and how insurance liability is handled.

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