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Do you ever have someone using the meeting rooms that you booked?
Have you experienced conflicts with the meeting rooms in your company? Imagine this situation: you’ve done hours of preparation for a meeting with your customer. Your slides, documents and ideas are in perfect order and you’re feeling confident. You meet your client in the lobby of the building and direct him upstairs to the meeting room you booked months ago, especially for this meeting. When you arrive, you feel a rush of panic: the door is closed and you can hear the sounds of a meeting in progress. You open the door. What should you do and say? It is important to knock on the door, enter slowly, excuse yourself and politely clarify the issue. Here are some phrases to help your issues with meeting rooms.
Phrases to use when discussing meeting room conflicts
- Excuse me for interrupting. Do you have a booking? / Did you book this room?
- I'm sorry to interrupt. Do you have a reservation? / Did you reserve this room?
The verb ‘to book’ is helpful when we need meeting rooms. We can also use the verb ‘to reserve’.
- Sorry for interrupting, but I have a booking here. / I booked this room. / I reserved this room.
If you checked and you know you’re in the right place at the right time, it can help to be assertive and confident.
- Hello. Sorry to interrupt your meeting, but I have a booking at 12:00.
If it’s close to 12:00, this can be a friendly way to suggest the person already in the room needs to finish his or her meeting in progress.
- Hi. Sorry to interrupt your teleconference, but I think I have a reservation here at this time. Can we check the calendar?
It might be necessary to look together and see how the conflict happened.
While these phrases can help in the uncomfortable situation that two people have booked the same room, this doesn’t really solve the problem. Employees around the world complain about meeting rooms in their office. Bookings are changed, rooms are double-booked and appointments are modified at the last minute. Do you have any tips for how to manage this sticky situation? It would be great to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Want to improve your meetings overall? Click here for more information.
