Hotel Empire Inn (San Bernardino, USA)

From its location near the I-10 freeway, the Best Western Hospitality Lane offers easy access to Big Bear Lake and the ski slopes beyond, as well as to Disneyland and all the other great family attractions in the area. If you feel like a beach day, the coast is only an hour away. It's also a convenient base for visiting students at the nearby universities.

While you always hope to receive good service at a hotel, guests here report that staff often go the extra mile for them. They will try hard to accommodate special requests such as adjusting room cleaning times to fit your schedule, or allowing you to check in early.

If you're traveling with pets, they'll get a warm welcome here too. You'll be assigned a room on ground level, so you can just open the door and let them out as there are no hallways. There's plenty of grass for them to run around.

Guests report that some of the rooms were inadequately aired and smelled like stale cigarette smoke, even those that should be non-smoking.

Although most reviewers were happy with the hotel's hygiene standards, some said their carpet needed to be cleaned, while others remarked that it was worn. The rooms concerned are apparently those normally assigned to people with pets, and are in the process of being updated.

The free breakfast buffet consists of mostly processed and pre-packed items such as breakfast burritos, pancakes and eggs that you heat in the microwave, along with yogurt, cereal, oatmeal, fruit and juice. You can get a freshly cooked breakfast at several other restaurants in the neighborhood.