Rest'Hôtel Caen · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key takeaways

• Rest'Hôtel Caen, whose full name is the Salon Rest'Hôtel et Métiers de Bouche de Caen, is the professional trade show for cafés, hotels and restaurants, food trades, institutional catering and tourism trades in Normandy. Two days, entry reserved for professionals, free on registration.
• Next edition: the 7th, on Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 October 2027, at the Parc des Expositions de Caen, in Hall 2. Open from 9:30am to 7:00pm on both days.
• Organiser: Alliance Expo, a trade fair and trade show organising company based in the Dordogne, which runs the Rest'Hôtel format in around ten cities. No co-organiser.
• Biennial frequency, in odd-numbered years: the website presents the trade show as the "biennial meeting of the professionals of NORMANDY". In even-numbered years, the region holds its edition in Rouen: in 2022 the organiser announced that the two cities would alternate.
• Key figures: for 2027, the organiser announces 200 exhibitors, 8,000 m² of exhibition space, 2,800 visiting establishments expected and five competitions. The latest results it published on its website, now removed from the current page, relate to 2019 and 2021: 200 exhibitors and 3,200 visiting establishments for each of those two editions.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The trade show is organised around four areas. Food and drink: fine foods, meat, seafood, fruit and vegetables, dairy and sweet products, drinks, wines and spirits, brewers, coffee and roasting, frozen foods, products for bakery-pastry and for butchers, charcutiers and caterers. Equipment and machinery: kitchen and laboratory, bakery and pastry, catering, bar, vehicles, hygiene, packaging, linen. Fit-out and interior design: furniture, renovation, decoration, tableware, from cutlery to porcelain. Services and new technologies: banking, insurance, mutual insurance, brokerage, estate agencies, accountancy, IT, software, apps, start-ups, websites.

The home page adds two categories in their own right: short supply chains, and institutional bodies and training. The 2025 list shows what this mix looks like in practice: equipment suppliers and wholesalers stand alongside a well-stocked "producers, brewers, winegrowers" category with many Norman firms, as well as banks, insurers, accountancy firms and, as in the 2023 journal, business-transfer agencies.

Notable exhibitors

No list is yet attached to the 2027 edition. The exhibitor list available on the official website is that of the 2025 edition: the page displays no year, but each listing there is attached to that edition. It should not be read as the 2027 list.

It includes professional equipment brands (Rational, Unox, MKN, Meiko), distributors and wholesalers (Sysco, France Boissons, Promocash, Pro à Pro, Disfrais), Lavazza for coffee, Petit Forestier and several millers (Moulins Viron, Minoterie Deslandes, Axiane Meunerie). Regional producers are numerous, among them Les Arpents du Soleil, Norman wines under PGI, Les Vergers du Val de Saire and Les Ruchers du Bocage Virois.

On the institutions and training side, the 2025 list brings together the CCI Normandie, the UMIH 14, the GHR Normandie, Interbev Normandie, the Chambre d'agriculture de Normandie, Bienvenue à la ferme, Bio en Normandie, the AREA Normandie, the OPCO des entreprises de proximité, the Groupement régional de la boulangerie-pâtisserie de Normandie, the GRETA Côtes normandes and the Hospitality & Tourism Business School in Caen. For the 2023 edition, the trade show journal publishes the full list of exhibitors for that year.

Visitor quality

The trade show targets four families of visitors, detailed by the organiser. Hospitality (CHR): cafés, hotels, restaurants, brasseries, snacking, pizzerias, crêperies, cafeterias, fast food. Food trades: butchers, charcutiers, fishmongers, caterers, bakers, pastry chefs, ice cream makers, confectioners, chocolatiers, grocers, greengrocers. Institutional catering: primary and secondary schools, care homes, hospitals, holiday centres. Tourism and leisure: campsites, gîtes, bed and breakfasts, leisure parks, tourist sites.

Entry is reserved for professionals, on presentation of an invitation or proof of profession. The organiser puts the number of establishments in its catchment area at more than 20,000, and its 2019 and 2021 results describe visitors coming from all over Normandy.

Attendance is expressed in visiting establishments, a unit that cannot be compared directly with a count of individual visitors: one establishment can send several people. Reporting on the 2019 edition, L'Hôtellerie Restauration thus estimated attendance at between 11,000 and 12,000 visitors. No third-party audit or OJS certification is published.

Activities & community

Competitions and demonstrations

Professional competitions are the thread running through the trade show, and they are resolutely Norman. The 2027 programme has not yet been published: the Competitions page still describes the 2025 edition. It announced a competition for Norman sous-chefs built around the scallop, whose season begins in October, a best burger competition showcasing local produce, a "Cheeses & Apples" competition pairing PDO cheeses with apples, a cocktail competition for bartenders, using at least two Norman products, and two events organised by the Groupement régional de la boulangerie-pâtisserie de Normandie, the best flan and the best Normandy almond galette.

In 2023, the trade show journal announced four professional competitions, including the final of the Challenge Bien Manger en Normandie, organised by the Chambre d'agriculture de Normandie for school-canteen chefs. The same journal planned a Normandy Market (Marché Normand) with culinary demonstrations built around regional products, an area devoted to innovations and, in the hotel area, talks on digitalisation, artificial intelligence applied to hospitality and social media.

The website's Demonstrations and Innovation Awards pages still present 2021 content, including two battles, one sweet, the other savoury, pitting a pastry chef or a chef against a chef from the Fauchon school. They say nothing about 2027.

Community & networks

Rest'Hôtel Caen belongs to a network. Alliance Expo organises Rest'Hôtel et Métiers de Bouche trade shows in several cities, on a rotating calendar: for 2026-2027, the website announces Rouen (4-5 October 2026), Brest (7-8 February 2027), La Teste-de-Buch (8-9 March 2027), Tours (14-15 March 2027), Caen (4-5 October 2027) and Tarbes (10-11 October 2027), then Dijon, Rennes, Périgueux and Clermont-Ferrand in 2028. Each trade show has its own catchment area and its own figures. In Normandy, Caen and Rouen take turns from one year to the next, since the Rouen edition was created in 2022.

The relays are regional: in 2023 and in 2025, the UMIH, the CCI, the chamber of agriculture, industry bodies and the bakery-pastry association exhibited or ran competitions. In 2019, L'Hôtellerie Restauration was already citing the CCI Caen Normandie, Umih Normandie, Bio en Normandie and Interbev Normandie among the institutional stands.

On the press side, L'Hôtellerie Restauration covered the 2019 edition, from the announcement to the results.

At national level, the sector's suppliers meet at major events such as Equip'Hôtel in Paris or Sirha in Lyon. Rest'Hôtel Caen plays a different card: the organiser presents it as a regional "salon de proximité" (a local trade show), a human-scale event that lets exhibitors be as close as possible to their customers.

On site: what you need to know

The trade show occupies Hall 2 of the Parc des Expositions de Caen, on rue Joseph Philippon. The park is located close to the city centre, between the Zénith and the Prairie site and racecourse. It offers 17,481 m² of covered space and 53,900 m² of outdoor space according to its operator, Caen Événements, a company set up by GL events, the group to which the City of Caen has entrusted the management of the park and the Congress Centre since 1 January 2019.

By train, Caen is 1 hour 50 minutes from Paris Saint-Lazare; by car, it is two hours from Paris via the A13 and 1 hour 45 minutes from Rennes via the A84. On the bus network, the operator lists line 4 (Parc Expo stop), lines 6a, 6b and 11 (Zénith stop) and a shuttle from the city centre. The park-and-ride at the Parc des Expositions is free, with an electric shuttle to the city centre. Caen-Carpiquet airport is about ten minutes from the city centre.

Opening hours: from 9:30am to 7:00pm on Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 October 2027. Entry is free on registration: the badge request page was not yet open at the beginning of October 2026 ("Please come back later!"). For any questions, the organisers can be reached on 05 53 45 72 12.

How much it costs to exhibit

Preparing your visit

For exhibitors

• Request the participation pack early: no Rest'Hôtel Caen pack is online, it is sent on request, via the form on the Exhibit page.
• Play the Normandy card: the 2025 competitions required or highlighted regional products, from scallops to PDO cheeses, and visitors come for their local suppliers. A national brand does well to come with its regional distributor or installer.
• Look at the competitions and bodies present in 2023 and 2025: the Groupement régional de la boulangerie-pâtisserie de Normandie ran events, the Chambre d'agriculture ran the Challenge Bien Manger en Normandie in 2023, and the UMIH was among the institutional exhibitors, all networks worth approaching.
• If your offer targets institutional catering or the hotel trade, prepare arguments specific to those audiences: the trade show explicitly targets them.
• The trade show takes place on a Monday and a Tuesday: schedule client meetings before opening and plan teams for two full days, from 9:30am to 7:00pm.

For decision-making visitors

• Request your badge online as soon as registration opens, as entry is reserved for professionals.
• Come with a specific project, equipment renewal, fit-out, till software or sourcing from Norman producers, and identify in advance the exhibitors to see, as the online list is that of 2025.
• Follow the competitions (sous-chefs, burger, bakers and pastry chefs in the 2025 programme) to spot professionals from the region.
• If the CCI, the UMIH and the training bodies return, as in the 2023 and 2025 lists, take the opportunity to ask about regulation, funding or recruitment.

CSR policy & initiatives

Neither the trade show's website nor Alliance Expo publishes a formal CSR policy, carbon footprint assessment or ISO 20121 certification for the event: the Rest'Hôtel website has no Commitments or Sustainable development section, and the organiser's website does not present one either.

The trade show's content nonetheless touches on these topics. Short supply chains form an exhibitor category in their own right, and recent editions have highlighted local produce: the Normandy Market and the Challenge Bien Manger en Normandie of the Chambre d'agriculture in 2023, competitions requiring Norman products in 2025. The rules of the 2025 cocktail competition also provide for the jury to take into account the candidates' corporate social and environmental responsibility approach, through home-made products and the waste produced during the competition. As early as 2019, one of Alliance Expo's executives announced in L'Hôtellerie Restauration: "In 2021, we will put even more emphasis on organic, short supply chains and eating local." These are programme themes, not a measured commitment by the organiser.

The venue, for its part, provides a documented approach. The ISO 20121 certificate of GL events Venues, issued by SGS in 2022, explicitly names the Parc des Expositions de Caen among its sites, and the group states on its ESG page that all its event sites in France are ISO 20121 certified and, for 2024, that the electricity of its French sites is 100% renewable and that a waste management and reuse guide is rolled out across the sites of its Venues division in France. Neither the trade show nor its organiser communicates on the application of these measures to Rest'Hôtel.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The trade show found its rhythm early. The 2019 edition, the third, was held at the Parc des Expositions de Caen and, according to L'Hôtellerie Restauration, set an attendance record: the organiser counted some 200 exhibitors there and stressed the rise in the number of establishments represented, whereas the previous session, in 2017, had brought together "barely 3,000". The official website gave a result of 200 exhibitors and 3,200 visiting establishments for 2019 (2021 campaign page, since modified).

As early as 2019, the organiser announced a next edition in 2021; it took place on 4 and 5 October 2021, and the biennial rhythm has not been broken since: 2023, 2025, then 2027. Measuring growth remains difficult. For 2021 the website displayed exactly the same figures as for 2019 (2023 campaign page), then published no results for 2023 or 2025; ahead of the 2023 edition, the trade show journal announced more than 250 exhibitors. The home page counters, 200 exhibitors, 8,000 m² and 2,800 visiting establishments expected, have been unchanged since the 2023 campaign: they are stated targets, not results.

The notable fact lies elsewhere. Since the creation of the Rouen edition in 2022, Alliance Expo has alternated Caen and Rouen, which makes Rest'Hôtel an annual event at regional scale and a biennial one at the scale of each city. For a Norman supplier to the hospitality (CHR) and food trades, the appeal of the trade show lies in this local density: more than 20,000 establishments in the targeted area according to the organiser, professional organisations present as exhibitors and competitions that anchor the event in the region's products.

The dates of the 2029 edition have not been announced.

All data without an explicit source comes from the organiser's website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (rest-hotel.fr).