The main venue of Canton Fair is in Pazhou, which is very close to the highway. If you are staying in nearby cities,it will only take you half an hour to one hour to get to Pazhou venue. The advantage of staying outside Guangzhou is: low prices. While the room rate in Guangzhou would double or triple during Canton Fair, many hotels outside Guangzhou would only increase slightly, for some of them, they would even keep the normal prices. In summary, we believe if you are looking for value for money, we would highly recommend you to pay attention to hotels outside Guangzhou.
For details, please check this link:
http://www.ecomeego.com/Accommodation/article/Should%20I%20stay%20outside%20Guangzhou.html