The Empyrean Towers

This place is all over the news. It has now been red tagged by the health department due to mold, and tainted water by sewage. Gross.

I’m not surprised that this place doesn’t have any reviews. Its not even really worth it to review this place. But hopefully, this review will help those make a better decision before staying here.
I’m only staying in this hotel since my living situation went to shambles. Until I found a new place to call home, I started looking at hotels that had cheap weekly rates. I chose Empyrean Towers because its super close to where I work. That is the only pro I give this place. My cons are as follow:
1. When I reserved a room, I booked from their website and chose a premier room with a private bath. I chose this room for the bathroom and the fact that it came with a microwave and refrigerator also. On the day I was coming to check in, I got a call from an employee who wanted to let me know that there was a problem with the room and I couldn’t stay in it from the night. Instead, he moved me to a double room and knocked off 2 days
2. I had no use of the elevator. It works, but only management and staff are able to use it. I had to lug my bike up 6 flights of steps.
3. There was no hot water on the 6^th floor. Since I wasn’t in my private room, I had to use the shared bathrooms which looked iffy. As in they weren’t cleaned very often. There are 2 bathrooms on each floor. On my floor, one of the bathroom has this really disgusting stench like something died in there and the other had absolutely no hot water coming from the shower head. In order to take a hot shower, I had to travel down to the 4^th floor.
4. Not only did I have to go to the 4^th floor to use a shower room with hot water, but the door didn’t close properly. You had to push the door open to get in, but the lock that was installed on the door was meant for a door that you PULLED OPEN. So my showers lasted only 5 minutes as to prevent people from walking in on me while I was naked.
5. At the time of this review, I would have stayed in this hotel for 4 days. I never saw a single housekeeper during my time here. The trash cans in the hallway are overflowing with trash and it smells so horrible in the hallways.
6. Also… I RARELY EVER SAW ANYONE WHO WORKED IN THIS HOTEL!!!
This place isn’t worth staying at. It was horrible and just upsetting.
P. S. I actually wrote this review some time ago.

This place is NOT a hotel/​motel/​inn or even a hostel– it is a pit of filth, a crime scene and the manager is a thief waiting to shake you down for spare change. His behavior and this place is shameful, filthy, and reeks with cigarette ash.
Empyrean Towers is a place nobody wants to be. It’s pathetic and embarrassing on behalf of humanity. I hope the building is condemned.

Way over priced for a piss in the sink room. Crack was sub-​par. Desk ‘staff’ is comically incompetent. Feh, you’ve been warned, just read the other reviews.
Room on 6^th floor, ‘elevator is for staff use only’, etc.
ffffffuuuuuuuuu!

This was not a hotel but a dilapidated slum apartment building. It provided virtually none of the services and items that a hotel provides.
My husband checked in, picking up the key but not visiting the room. He was unable to locate the building for some time, as no signage appeared outside and the building was remarkably inconspicuous. Once inside, he found no desk clerk. At no time during our stay did I observe a clerk at the desk.
The «hotel» offered no parking facilities. When we arrived at around 9:30 or 10:00 PM, we had to circle the area for a parking facility that was still open and had no choice but to park three or four blocks away at the Civic Center, where we paid $ 25 a day for our two-​day stay.
The elevator in the «hotel» was out of order. We had no choice but to walk up seven flights of stairs carrying our luggage to our seventh-​floor room.
At the top of the stairs, only inadequate lighting was provided by a flickering fluorescent tube that had neared the end of its life (not unlike the building in which it was installed). We could barely see where to insert the key to enter the hallway from the stairwell. The lighting on the lower levels of the stairwell was sufficient to reveal the holes in the walls and peeling paint. The unpleasant stench of cigarette smoke assaulted our senses throughout the climb despite the numerous signs prohibiting smoking in the building. At one floor, a dog ran by being chased by its owner, who apparently had missed the signs prohibiting animals on the premises.
We were unable to locate our room, as there was no door on that level displaying its number. A kind gentleman whose door was ajar and noticed our plight assisted us by confirming my suspicion as to which door should have been marked with that number.
We found no lighting in the room. Leaving the door open, we could see a light fixture on the ceiling and one on the wall over the sink, but neither was functional. There was, however, a working light in the bathroom. The problem was not a lack of electrical power but the absence of light bulbs. We were able to borrow one from the kind gentleman down the hall, who was also good enough to install it. He also called the emergency number he had for an employee whose name I believe was Bryce. Bryce told me that he was on his way over and would arrive around 11:20 or no later than 11:30. At that time it was 10:10. I informed him that we were tired and would not be up that late.
The main room contained only a bed, a sink above a cabinet, a mirrored medicine cabinet, a closet, and a radiator. Drapes nearly covered the windows (they didn’t quite reach all the way to the edges). There were no window shades or Venetian blinds. There was also no air conditioner. Other absent items were night tables, a table, chairs, a clock, a TV, a dresser, a refrigerator, water cups, a pitcher or ice bucket, hangers in the closet, luggage rests, a telephone, and a desk. The mirror on the medicine cabinet was the only mirror in either room; as it rested at my eye level (approximately five feet from the floor), it was all but useless to us.
In the bathroom there were no towels or even towel racks; the same was true at the sink in the main room. There was no toilet paper and no holder for any. There was a bathtub, but there was no place to put soap, shampoo, conditioner, or body wash other than in the boarded-​up window beside it – nor was any soap, shampoo, conditioner, or body wash provided. The tub had no hot water, and without a shower curtain a shower would surely have flooded the room. As a result, we were unable to shower during our stay. Before checking out we noticed water on the bathroom floor suggesting that the toilet leaked.
Paint on the walls was peeling. Pipes were exposed in both rooms. Neither the closet door nor the bathroom door would close. The door to the room had only one working lock – the one in the doorknob. Only half of a second lock was provided: the casing was present for a sliding lock, but the sliding portion was absent. I believe that two locks are required by law. Only the main room contained a waste basket.
We did stay up until about 11:30, but Bryce did not appear. After I had gone to bed (no blanket was furnished), I heard the voices of two men at our door. I had placed a note regarding our most immediate needs, such as towels and soap, on the door before retiring and heard the helpful tenant and presumably Bryce reading it aloud. Nevertheless, in the morning I found nothing whatsoever left for us outside the door.
The following day I called the «hotel» and expressed my grievances. The impolite woman with whom I spoke claimed that the place was a «hostel hotel» and that such places did not provide the items I had discovered to be absent. She claimed that this information was online. it is not.
When we returned for our second/​final night, no housekeeping staff personnel had serviced the room in the thirteen or so hours we were away.

Booked this hotel for a week because I was on a budget for my Cali/​San Fran vacation. I called in advance to confirm that I would be checking in late, flight would land at 12am midnight, and they told me someone would be there to check you in since I was arriving late. When I got to downtown Oakland at 1am I was stuck outside, constantly called Justin, the manager who’s phone number is posted on the door. I called at least a dozen times and no answer. I was stranded in the crime infested downtown Oakland with no place to stay at 2am in the morning after I called to told then I would be coming in late in the first place. I had to find another hotel for that night. When I checked in the nest morning, I had no problems, but when I received my room I had booked a private room with a private bathroom but instead I received just a room and had to share a toilet and shower with the rest of the whole floor. The shower door lock was even broken. One time someone walked in on me while in the shower, my concern is if I was a woman what might have happened. Those are safety concerns. Overall it was an ok experience, but because of what happened to me the first night, I’d never stay there again, and they even denied a partial refund to me for that missed night and downgraded room, «we will inform you that
we did make arrangements for the guest to check-​in. We gave the guest
the name and number of our resident manager to call once he arrives, but
failed to do so. At this time, we are not honoring the guests wishes for
a full refund and/​or compensation.» –Empyrean Towers
Very disappointed. I hope this review will help anyone looking to check into this hotel.

I arrived in the evening around 8pm on a Monday after getting kicked out of my sublet at five minutes notice. There was no one present at the front desk. When I tried to call the «night manager» Justin he did not pick up. The security guard tried to call him as well but he could not be bothered to do his job. Perhaps he was too busy celebrating St Patrick’s Day? These people will never see a dime of my money I don’t care how cheap they are. Also there is a seedy massage parlor across the street.

I booked a room for a week and when I went to check-​in, the resident manager said that they overbooked. They are willing to take your money up front but not give you a room. Also, resident managers state they can not refund your money that it is handled by the owners so who knows when I’ll be refunded my money. Look elsewhere.