We stayed at the empire hotel for two nights as we were on a coach trip with a party of 18 people, this hotel as far as I know has been used for coach tours for a number of years.
The hotel is in a good position and offers easy access to the coast, shops etc.
My personal view of the hotel is that the hotel overall is ready for a makeover. The place is quite dark and dank. The bar area was cosy but very small and provided a good atmosphere. it is open all night so I am not sure if the noise would carry to the lower floors, we had no noise pollution on the 5th floor. Ther is a smoking area by way of a sliding door by the side of the bar which created a cold draft when opened. There is a nice resteraunt on show near the front of the hotel with modern
decor however we dined in the back in a basic dining room, I never saw any one in the dining room. Luckily the bedroom was o.k. Very basic but clean White bedding and the shower nice and hot and clean facilities. The food we had was ok, again quite basic service was ok friendly bar staff and I thought the service in the dining room was ok, there is a small lift which broke for a day but was repaired the next day thankfully as the stairs are quite steep.all. in all not too bad, I won't stay there again but it's ok for a short stay.

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.