Abando

I give it a bad rating because during a heat wave in Bilbao, the air conditioning did not work! and they solved it with a small fan!!! They did not change our room. The room faced an internal light shaft, so it was not very bright; it had a window where no air flowed, and you could see from the other building. It was not quiet either. How can it be that the cleaning staff makes so much noise on a Saturday and Sunday at 7 AM??? You could also hear noises from the adjacent rooms, slamming doors, footsteps! A horror!!! The breakfast at €22 seemed very expensive to us. The parking is €27. It is a shame that a hotel that claims to be 4 stars and very well located has this lack of maintenance and insulation!!!

For a four star hotel, it left much to be desired. We couldn’t change the temperature of the AC, couldn’t reach the front desk or concierge on the phone, didn’t have any shower gel, shampoo or conditioner in the bathroom and didn’t have anyone helping us with bags. Besides the front desk checking us in quickly when we arrived, the central location and the beds being decently comfortable, there was nothing else about the experience that made it worth the money.

Very good location which was perfect for walking everywhere in the city. Our room was spacious, with calm decor and comfortable beds (2 single beds pushed together though...) A few small niggles - some black mould in the bathroom which is never acceptable and then made me fear the black grout was hiding more. Very mean with the coffee provided - only one sachet of normal coffee each day and milk not always replenished. To be honest I've not found any hotel in Spain that provides decent coffee in the bedrooms. The main reason for the low score is the lack of sound insulation which others have mentioned. Could hear quite a lot of street noise at night (was surprised as it wasn't a busy area) and more irritating, when adjacent rooms were using their showers the plumbing made a terrible racket. (Like a loud aircon hum). If this was a budget hotel I would probably shrug this off but it is far from cheap.