Empress Motel

Pros: Staff at the desk was very friendly and was able to get us checked in before check in time. Parking was very easy. Easy beach access.

Cons: Everything related to the room. The floor was carpeted but had a very moist/damp feeling. Did not want to walk in the room without shoes on as parts of the carpet or just dirt would come off on my feet. Sheets had stains on them. Couch was heavily stained.
In the bathroom the shower curtain was growing mold and so was the ceiling and corners of the wall.
Appliances were rusting generally.
Whenever the AC turned on you could hear a lot of sitting condensate start to stir up, was a bit worried about legionnaires' disease personally.
Walking from the room to the parking lot it was impossible to not get a strong weed smell. Not much the hotel staff can do to control that one but be aware your experience may be the same.
Door and door frame were visable askew from each other. Major gaps meant you heard the outside all night, same with the sliding door.
Overall on vacation you dont normally want to spend a lot of time in the room, but this motivated me to maximize being anywhere else.

Bathrooms were very clean, the room could have been cleaner however. The carpet, beds, linens and furniture are very dated and could use an update. Beds were springy and not too stiff. Room came with 2 double beds. Mini fridge freezer was not cleaned out and full of ice. Microwave was also very dated but worked fine. 1 minute walk to the beach/boardwalk and on site parking was wonderful. Definitely saved us plenty of walking. Pool is nice and wasn't very crowded at all. Overall a quiet and older style motel. It works as a place to sleep for the night!

For the price, I guess I shouldn't complain, but there were a few big issues. 1) The lock on the door to the balcony was broken. It would lock only after you played with it for about five minutes, trying each angle to make it lock. I know the chances of someone climbing the balcony and breaking in were miniscule, but we were a pair of single women travelling alone and were a bit creeped out by it. 2) The room was so bright at night you could almost read by it. The curtains on the main window didn't go all the way down and let light through at the bottom and there was only a tiny blind on the balcony door window. Being on the corner of the building, we had high intensity lights glowing at us from both sides. They need to replace the window coverings. 3) The Empress lobby was closed the entire time we were there and we had to go down to the Sahara lobby whenever we needed something, which was often, because housekeeping was hit or miss. We had to ask for towels & toilet paper every day and some days, all they did was drop it off and not even empty our garbage cans. The location was excellent, though, and the staff that we did engage with were very pleasant.