Terrible experience! No ventilation in the room. After shower the little room was really hot and humid. And no window to open. Room was not clean. The bathroom had no sewer so water stayed on the floor. Shower curtain was dirty. Some other hotel quests made terrible noice (shouting, banging doors, screaming) during several hours during the night, the hotel took no resposibility of this.

We travel a lot and love trying different hotels, but I'm sorry to say this experience was well below par and one of the worst I have had around the world.

Problems:
- On arrival the receptionist told us she had been watching us parking and that we had parked outside someone's property (not allowed). She also noted we were facing the wrong way (also not allowed) - we asked why she hadn't told us this before when watching us for the past 10 minutes but as she couldn't suggest an alternative parking space, we brushed it off and moved the car to a car park nearby (20 Euros overnight for the pleasure).

- The shared areas of the hotel seemed promising (lounge, outside) however you enter the door to the rooms and it's 1950 - old, smelly, dirty, brown rooms which you cannot even swing a cat in. Fortunately we were 4 youngish ladies so had a bit of a giggle about the tiny double rooms we were sharing and promptly hopped into bed. We were going camping the next day (proof we are not fussy!) so all we wanted here was a basic good night's sleep.

- We drew back the curtains and realised our rooms had loose windows which backed on to a fairly horrifying looking open staircase / fire escape outside. We went to talk to reception as we felt quite unsafe and asked if any rooms on the other side of the building. We were told in no uncertain terms no there weren't and we should get on with it.

- Willing to draw a line under the above we went to bed but 2 of our group on the 2nd floor were kept awake all night by pumping music. They went down to reception to complain...only to find out that it was the receptionist herself who was blaring out the music. Absolutely shocking to be kept up all night (and I do mean 5am) by hotel's own staff!!!

We were told no one could help us with a discount or refund as the manager wasn't around. As a result you see this review which is the most negative I've given on Tripadvisor. Only redeeming feature of this hotel is a passable breakfast but please stay elsewhere if you possibly can. It was grim and backed up by laughably bad staff.

Hotel is being refurbished .The staff are very friendly.the rooms are kept very clean.Normal continental breakfast but a cooked breakfast can be ordered for a small supplement.Very close to town centre.

I actually have to agree and disagree with the above comments.
My stay in Oostende should have been for two nights but I only could get one room for the first night online in advance, as I was late with booking. So my first day I walked into the Empire to ask for the way, but after checking they had a room available for the second night. I was surprised how friendly and helpful the receptionists were and I was even given an invoice for my advance payment. The hotel lobby is small but very inviting as well as very clean.
When I finally checked in the next day I was told that my room wasn’t booked but after showing the advance payment invoice I immediately received my room key and was told of the main extras, for example breakfast and dinner times. The elevator up to the 5th floor was small and scary and made me walk the stairs until the next day. The double room itself is small and fitted only with the basics (bed, chair, table, wardrobe, TV, armchair). Even though it was a smoking room it didn’t smell. Everything looked old, the bed linen in a slight yellow color, the arm chair was broken down, the TV build on the top wall, but so small you had to concentrate to see anything at all and the window was located to a small inside area where the fire escape stairs came right along your window. As a good point though I could leave the window open while smoking and the noise from the street was around zero. The bathroom looked build in, very cheaply made out of plates to save the tiles. It was fairly clean and the bath tub seemed smaller than a normal shower.
Breakfast the next morning was included in the room rate and only available from 7.30am to 9.30am. It offered different breads, sweets, croissants, juices (not fresh), coffee, chocolate, tea, cheese, ham, honey, different cereals and fruits. Basic but all you need for a good start.

FAZIT: For one or two nights a standard single or double is ok considering you don’t spend much time in the room itself. For a longer stay I would book a bigger apartment or different hotel. Even though it wasn’t very clean/updated and had a few take backs, I was very surprised by the friendly hotel personal on different occasions (Even hotel staff has bad days and difficult guests are always nerve racking…) and the very good breakfast. As well the location both to the city centre and beach is fantastic.