We are already seeing the rise of the "private event" at audio shows. I've rarely, if ever, read a scathing listener experience from one of these events.
Hotel rooms are garbage. They can only show gear, not music. It's time to move away from the 150 square foot box.
What makes this any different than someones listening room of equal size? You can get great sound in these rooms and it has to do with set up experience. I myself put large speakers in these small rooms and have excellent sound to the point where I could play the speakers at concert volumes without overloading the room. I believe manufacturers are better at this. If you can't get speakers to sound good in rooms like this than something is wrong. Granted, some hotels room are better than others, but this gives a lot of insight on just how well a speaker is designed. Some speakers just don't work well in small rooms where they are anywhere close to walls. Unfortunately, if you don't already have a larger room booked, chances are you won't get one. So your only option is to show in a smaller room or don't show at all. No matter what the size of the room is, a listener should be able to see clearly into a systems potential. I believe we have been able to do much more than that. Not to mention I have seen large speakers in the larger rooms get destroyed by systems in the smaller rooms. This is the case where bigger isn't always better.