Renting an appropriate meeting room for your work-related conference or event doesn’t have to be difficult, expensive, or stressful. As long as you plan everything accordingly and pay attention to some key details, there’s no reason why you can’t find a great meeting room for a reasonable price. Meeting room rentals are a viable option for those occasions when you need to gather your entire staff—even those who work remotely—for an all-hands-on-deck type of meeting, when you need to conduct interviews, or if you’re just looking to impress your clients. But sometimes it’s easy to miss small details and choose a space that doesn’t accommodate your needs or expectations.
Meeting room rental mistakes are more common than you think and here are the ones you should try to avoid.
Failure to Check Space Availability Prior to Finalizing the Date
One of the most common yet costly missteps when planning your meeting or event is failing to check the availability of space with the venue prior to finalizing the date(s) internally. It is common practice for businesses to coordinate everyone’s calendars, set the date in concrete, and then go looking for a venue for that date, only to find there is nothing available that will satisfy their needs properly. This is the exact opposite of how to effectively plan your function, if you are interested in getting the best possible venue.
It is much more effective if you contact your preferred venue prior to setting up your function and choose a selection of possible available dates. After this you can set about coordinating attendees.
You will also often find that venues are willing to offer better deals for dates that are open in their calendar.
Booking an Expensive Meeting Room in a Hotel
As a means of attracting and catering to a wide range of clientele, many upscale hotels have started offering meeting room rentals to business professionals. Given the metropolitan locations of many of these ritzy hotels, the cost of renting a meeting room from them—even for just a few hours—can run up a huge bill for your company. While hotels can certainly offer luxury accommodations for your employees and clients, they often lack other amenities that business centre rental venues offer as part of their standard package. This includes comprehensive IT support, office equipment, and so much more.
On top of the cost of renting the meeting space from the hotel, you also have to consider the cost of supplying all of these amenities for the duration of your meeting.
Insufficient Privacy and Security Measures
Holding meetings in a public setting or co-working space where pretty much anyone can overhear your conversation is less than ideal. When it comes to booking a business meeting—whether it’s companywide or only involves a few employees—privacy and security should be a top priority. You need to make sure that all privileged information is protected to avoid encountering major issues down the line.
Renting a Meeting Room That Doesn’t Have Office Supplies or Equipment
Another important consideration that often gets overlooked during the booking process is whether or not the office space rental company offers office supplies and equipment. Always find out whether the venue provides everything you need to help you successfully run your meeting. WiFi, whiteboards, printers, desks, office chairs, pens, pencils, computers, printers, conference calling, etc. to conduct your business should be readily available during your meeting or conference. You should also find out if these items are included in your rental agreement or if you have to pay extra for them.
Choosing an Inconvenient Location
Just like in real estate, location is critical when renting a meeting space, especially for those who have to commute from a long distance to attend the meeting. In fact, one of the biggest meeting room mistakes you could possibly make is to choose a location that’s inaccessible via car or public transit. While you might think it’s more cost-effective to choose a location that’s on the outskirts of the city, sometimes these can be a lot harder for your employees to get to.
It’s better to spend a little more for a prime location that offers easy accessibility and is within walking distance to the nearest bus stop or subway than to inconvenience your employees. Encouraging them to carpool is one thing, but renting a meeting space that’s a little off the grid so you can save a little bit of money is impractical.
Meeting Rooms with Inflexible Lease Services and Lease Terms
Some meeting room rental companies are only really in it for the money and they’ll try to coerce you into signing an inflexible long-term lease or take out a “membership” that doesn’t benefit your business at all. If you only need to rent a meeting space on a short-term basis such as a few hours, a day, or a week, it doesn’t make any sense for you to enter into a long-term contract.
Meeting space rentals are meant to be affordable, convenient, and available to accommodate your needs and the needs of your company. Make sure you read through the rental agreement carefully before signing on the dotted line. Only look into meeting space rental companies that offer flexible services, hours of operation, and lease terms. Don’t feel obligated to agree to anything extra that you don’t really need.
Booking a Meeting Space That’s the Wrong Size
An important part of organizing a meeting with your employees or clients is knowing exactly how many people will be able to attend the meeting in person and how many people need to be conference called. This will help you determine the size of the meeting room needed. Preparation is key in this type of situation and it’s important to get an accurate headcount ahead of time. For smaller and more low-key work events, you might want to consider renting a meeting space that can comfortably accommodate a small group size. Larger events call for more seating and walking space to allow people to easily interact with one another or congregate around the refreshments and snack table if there is one.
The last thing you want to happen is to rent a meeting room that only holds 30 to 35 attendees when you have 60 people coming. Tight spaces and over-crowdedness can make people feel claustrophobic which in turn can hinder productivity. All attendees should be made to feel comfortable so that they can concentrate on the task at hand.
Why You Should Rent a Meeting Room from Innovative Professional Offices
Are you looking for meeting rooms in Ottawa or Mississauga, Ontario? Innovative Professional Offices offers excellent meeting room solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses across all industries. Whether you’re simply looking to conduct candidate interviews in private, you’re holding a large companywide quarterly meeting, or you simply want to celebrate an employee’s milestone, we have everything you need to make your gathering a success. Contact us today to learn more.
