The location is great, but even when the hotel is not full you are not given a sea view room. That would have made my stay! The room I was given was small, but a queen size bed did just fit in it. The bathroom was comfortable and of a good size. The breakfast was of good quality too. As for the availability of WiFi you need to pay 5 Stg a day – the hotel does not provide their outgoing server address and failed to understand that it is of no consequence to them to do so – this left me without the possibility of sending emails during my stay. The place has a sort of charm but the management must understand that even though as a guest I look for the classic charm, IT requirements of the day are essential.

We had booked in for 5 nights with a sea view. Our room was lovely and the corridors to the room were a bit up and down, as was our room, which added character. The chambermaid service was fantastic. The room was serviced while we were at breakfast.

The downside was that on arrival on 3 October the receptionist could see we were waiting but waited for us to ring the bell. She neither smiled nor said welcome. She did her job with an air of monotony. That was our first impression of the hotel and it marred our feeling for the hotel right through our stay. We found the rest of the reception staff charming and friendly. It is a shame that this one person spoiled our stay.

The main restaurant had an insipid menu with little fish and which we found expensive so we did not try it. The breakfast was plentiful but was set out buffet style so the cooked section was very dried out and tired. I had porridge one day but the portion was so huge I gave that up. However, my husband had lovely Manx kippers as these were cooked to order.

The other issue I had was that WiFi was not free. We have been to less expensive hotels and bed and breakfasts where WiFi was free. We found this extra charge just greedy.

Despite our bad first impression, I would recommend this hotel.

I stayed here on a business trip for three nights. I had a cheaper room (£69) which meant no view and a fairly compact room, but apart from its small size and thin walls it was perfectly adequate. A good en-suite with a really first class shower and the room itself, though small, had everything you would need, including a desk and wi-fi broadband (for which there was a charge) Bed was comfy too.

The hotel itself is quite big and rambling and sits on the Douglas esplanade, with great sea views. We were obviously not paying enough for a premium sea-view room, however. There is a gym and pool that I did not try, and three choices of food: the Aroma basement self-service (I looked at this and did not fancy it much), a formal restaurant (which seemed empty most of the time) and bar meals available in the bar/conservatory area. I had a bar meal on my first night and found it speedy, reasonably priced and quite good quality. The choice, however, is quite limited. Breakfast in the Aroma was a self-service buffet and good quality. You can also order the local kippers - be warned, the portions of these are enormous.

The bar is pleasant enough and there is a piano man - fine if you like that sort of thing.

Staff were excellent - almost all eastern European but well trained and very polite and helpful. The receptionist even kept my bag of kippers in the fridge for two days.

Customers mainly seemed to be retired holidaymakers. Overall, I couldn't find too much to fault and would probably go back at this price.

I went to the Isle of Man for business for 3 nights, our company normally books us in the Sefton but that was too expensive and therefore found the Empress on the HRG booking site quoted £75 for a double with breakfast but paid £20 more for an Executive room. My room was 105 and was a good size, king size bed, it actually had a balcony outside but the doors to this were locked, assuming for Health and Safety reasons. However I could easily climb out of the window on to it which was good as I am a smoker.

The TV has your usual channels from free view, the bar is very good, expensive but friendly and a guy plays the piano in the evening which is pleasent. Breakfast is decent and good service.

Only moan is that on the website it it says WI FI and Broadband come as standard which suggests it is included, but it is not. £4.95 for 24 hours which is reasonable, in my room was a cable connection as well as wireless but I dont think this is in the ordinary rooms.