Stay With Empire — Hotel in Great Britain

Not a credible accommodation property and should be avoided. A night was booked here through hotels.com late in the evening and at the last minute - it was a disaster. Instructions were received for the key safe and keys available however the keys did not open the front door leaving me at 12:30am stood outside on the phone to various call centers. The keys in the spare key safe were identical and subsequently did not work either so was asked to wait for a locksmith to attend with no timescale on how long this could be. All this is unfortunate but not unexceptable as these things happen so the low rating is based more on the reaction to it. Given the time of night, the five hour journey and distance travelled I politely suggested the booking was cancelled and sourced another hotel. The girl on the phone agreed this was sensible and that the booking would be cancelled without charge ( presumably the cost of sending someone out at this time of night would be equal to or greater than the value of the booking ). To my dismay the booking WAS processed, money taken and when hotels.com queried this have refused to reimburse the money stating it is a self checkin arrangement and I had refused to wait to get this sorted. I had waited over 40 mins, had tried every key at least three times and done all requested of me. Given the time of night the cancellation had seem in the best interests of both parties. I don't know yet if I'll ever get the money back so will just make you aware of what this property is so you can make an informed choice on whether this is for you. This is not a hotel or an apart-hotel is the information I read insinuated. The site is unmanned with no reception or staff in the event of a property. The 'apartment' is positioned behind a shared front door. The property seems residential and more of an AIRBNB setup. The area it is located in is rundown and dirty with rubbish everywhere. Customer service is poor Privileged with these facts it maybe that your expectations would be lower and the experience on offer acceptable to you but I was mis-sold and then robbed of the money sent in good faith for a nights accommodation that was not accessible and did not match the description given that gave me the confidence to buy. As for hotels.com it's the equivalent of Justeat listing a takeaway business that is actually food cooked in a back...

AVOID AVOID AVOID. Booked an apartment in Blackpool which included free parking and was told by 'Stay with Empire' that we would receive a door code at 4pm. Then literally an hour before, we received a text to say our apartment we picked, was out of service (no explanation as to why) and that we had been moved to another part of Blackpool. We asked them not to take any money from my account until we had viewed the alternate apartment they had chosen for us. However, we were in for a total shock!! The alternate apartment had nowhere to park, unless you payed £36 for 2 days in a multi storey. Then, as we walked towards the front door of this alternate appartment, it was abs filthy, dirty & stank heavily of drugs. We entered into a dark gloomy hallway, that had blankets/sheets folded (as though they were waiting to go onto the beds), literally all along the hall floor (not even on any shelves)!!! The stàirs to the apartment which we then found was in the attic, were steep and dangerous and we noticed there was no emergency fire escape, which is worrying and I will be informing Trading Standards and Blackpool Council of this. The jaccuzi was actually in the small living room right NEXT to the settee!! There was mold & damp on the ceiling, stains on the wall next to one of the beds and hairs on the bed, settee and jaccuzi. The pictures/images this company advertise, do not reflect reality. We tried several times to contact Marika who is the owner, who told us she couldnt ring us, as her phone wasnt working properly!! We told her we were not staying there and not to take any money and we then had to find last minute alternative accommodation. However, when I checked my bank account, they had just taken the money anyway and when I asked for a refund, Marika kept advising it had been sorted, but it hasn't been paid into my account, so I've now got my bank helping to see if they can retrieve it. How have Blackpool Council or Trading Standards not shut this company down, for misleading images, advertising and taking customers money!! Please, please dont stay with this company. We found beautiful alternate accomodation for...

Don't book apartment with empire at 203 dickson road flat 6 2 bedroom apartment as pictures that are up there isn't what you get windows have blown condensation inbetween, 1 sofa bed in living room/dining room/kitchen, really uncomfortable sit on it and you will have springs up your bum can't sleep on it at all and it's starting to fall apart the one edge is already starting to slipt,cooker works but hob didn't work for us, plates, dishes, cups and cutlery needed washing before we could use them, fridge and microwave both smell from curry, carpets in both bedroom had stains all over them, window catch in living room broke so in high winds window bangs and rattles all thought the night, bedroom doors don't shut and bathroom door people can see in and out thought gaps, chest of drawers in 1 bedroom cant use all of them and bottoms one don't stay on there runner, dust and bits all inside draws, rubbish left around apartment under sofa bed, under 1 of the beds behind chest of drawers and gas cupboard in living room behind door miss match table and chairs and one chair in the bedroom behind the living room you can't sit on as back legs come away from seat, also curtain pole in that room is rushed and curtain pole falls off bracket. If I could put pictures up of what I've got to whats on the website I would so everyone can see what it really looks like. So if I was you would avoid by all cost and look somewhere else to stay. The host also says that she loves her customers so pop in and see her but that's also lies I asked to meet face to face but she said in email unfortunately that will be impossible. SO PLEASE PLEASE AVOID AND LOOK...