Empire Lakeshore Inn

A true "up north" experience. Great location , nestled in the Village of Empire. The Sleeping Bear Dunes is a short drive away. The staff were helpful. The room was clean, well equipped. Highly recommend. Quiet, peaceful, simply beautiful.

This is the first time I’ve ever left a negative review, but the way we were treated here is simply unacceptable. What’s even more surprising is how this place has so many positive reviews — something I genuinely don’t understand after our experience. My mother and I arrived on Friday evening. A lady kindly welcomed us and informed us that our room was in a separate building. She gave us directions, and I asked if I needed to take my car to get there. Once we arrived at the room, we just dropped off our luggage and went out for dinner without paying too much attention to the space. Later that evening, we noticed the floor was not clean, there were used shampoo and shower gel bottles left in the shower, and when we went to get into bed, one of the beds was clearly not changed — it was wrinkled and had hair in it. I called to report the issue and explained that I doubted the room had been properly cleaned. The woman on the phone told me I was lying and insisted the room had been checked three times. When I asked how that was possible given what we found, she responded by accusing me of not being happy just because we were in the other building — and then she hung up on me. I tried to call back but couldn’t get through. I truly don’t understand how our experience was so negative at a place with such high ratings. I felt it was important to share this because the way the situation was handled — especially refusing to even come and look at the room — was completely unacceptable. Why would we make this up if this wasn’t genuinely what we experienced?