diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jitsi/impl/reservation/rest/ApiHandler.java b/src/main/java/org/jitsi/impl/reservation/rest/ApiHandler.java
index 2c58286a69..f5087f564a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jitsi/impl/reservation/rest/ApiHandler.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jitsi/impl/reservation/rest/ApiHandler.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 import org.apache.http.client.entity.*;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.*;
 import org.apache.http.impl.client.*;
+import org.apache.http.impl.*;
 import org.apache.http.message.*;
 import org.apache.http.util.*;
 import org.jitsi.impl.reservation.rest.json.*;
@@ -56,7 +57,10 @@ public class ApiHandler
      * HTTP client used for sending requests.
      */
     private final CloseableHttpClient client
-            = HttpClientBuilder.create().build();
+            = HttpClientBuilder
+              .create()
+              .setConnectionReuseStrategy(NoConnectionReuseStrategy.INSTANCE)
+              .build();
 
     /**
      * <tt>JSONParser</tt> instance used for parsing JSON.
@@ -119,7 +123,7 @@ public ApiResult createNewConference(String ownerEmail,
                         entry.getKey(), String.valueOf(entry.getValue())));
         }
 
-        post.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs, "UTF8"));
+        post.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs, "UTF-8"));
 
         logger.info("Sending post: " + jsonMap);
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jitsi/jicofo/auth/AbstractAuthAuthority.java b/src/main/java/org/jitsi/jicofo/auth/AbstractAuthAuthority.java
index 39964461f7..44957e9d1c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jitsi/jicofo/auth/AbstractAuthAuthority.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jitsi/jicofo/auth/AbstractAuthAuthority.java
@@ -413,10 +413,7 @@ protected void notifyUserAuthenticated(Jid userJid,
     public IQ processAuthentication(
             ConferenceIq query, ConferenceIq response)
     {
-        synchronized (syncRoot)
-        {
-            return processAuthLocked(query, response);
-        }
+        return processAuthLocked(query, response);
     }
 
     /**