Melia Bilbao
The verdict
Pick a traveller type to re-weight the scores and re-rank the rooms around what you actually care about.
Every line below traces back to something a traveler actually wrote — open a line to read the original sentence and follow it to the source.
Who it's for
- — travelers who walk everywhere instead of booking cars
- — long-shower, slow-morning travelers
- — light sleepers — the beds get singled out
- — anyone who cares more about the room than the lobby
Read from the sub-scores above, not written by hand.
No loyalty-earning direct rate was found for these dates, so the lowest cash rate is shown first.
Prices shown are an estimated range, not a live quote — the booking site confirms the real rate for your dates.
This sits inside our estimated range for this hotel.
Confidence: low · modelled estimate, not a live quote. Check the supplier for the real rate on your dates.
Score breakdown
How the 84/100 is built, category by category — each one with the strongest thing travelers actually said, and the source it came from.
Bathroom
89Nothing quotable yet on this one — the score leans on the rest of the coverage.
Location
91Room
86- “But the piece de resistance (no matter if you've booked a standard room or a suite) is the huge, marble bathroom. You could almost sleep in the deep sunken tubs, and there are separate showers, dual sinks, and bidets in each luscious lavatory.” 3
- “And it's a nice walk through town or along the river to the Guggenheim. We stayed in Hotel Bilbao Plaza, which we found on booking.com. Nice room and great location.” 1
Service
86- “The 24-hour front desk looks like it never sleeps thanks to a panoramic photo of the city emblazoned on the front (though long lines at the desk also might make patrons feel like they're going to be waiting there all night).” 3
Bed & Sleep
89Nothing quotable yet on this one — the score leans on the rest of the coverage.
Value
80Nothing quotable yet on this one — the score leans on the rest of the coverage.
Where it is, how to reach it
Details checked 2026-08-29
Stay value
How this property reads against the hotels we cover alongside it. Measured on review evidence, not on a nightly rate.
Falls short of what $$ usually buys
Scores 5 points below the mid-range median of 89, across 513 hotels in the same bracket.
- This hotel
- 84
- Bracket median
- 89
- Index median
- 90
Based on 513 comparable hotels.
Which room to ask for
What reviewers say about where to sleep inside this building — by room number where one is named, and otherwise by floor, wing, aspect and position. Every line opens onto the quotes behind it.
No reviewer has yet described a room, floor or aspect specifically enough to act on at this property. Room intelligence appears here the moment they do.
Where travelers agree — and don’t
The topics reviewers split on most. A wide bar means your experience depends on which room you get — or whose opinion you trust.
View the 13 things travelers said behind this verdict▾
Quotes run exactly as travelers wrote them — spelling and all. We trim for length, never for tidiness.
- “Rooms are supposedly "soundproofed" but there is still quite a bit of interior hotel noise that can be heard, so if you're concerned about that ask for a room away from the gym, pool, or elevators.” 3
- “We had a great stay at The Artist Hotel, right across from the Guggenheim. We liked the Hotel Carlton; a few steps from a Metro stop and easy walk to the Guggenheim.” 1
- “Would you recommend staying in the old town area or the Abando district? We stayed at the Catalonia and really liked it. We found we were able to walk everywhere from there.” 1
- “I liked the Bilder in Old Town. It was splurge hotel- even got the balcony!- but the location was great.” 1
- “https://www.hotelcarlton.es/en/ We recently stayed at the Hotel Miro close to the Guggenheim Museum. We recently stayed at the Hotel Miro close to the Guggenheim Museum. I enjoyed the location as the Guggenheim was the reason we were there.” 1
- “Located in the center of Bilbao, the hotel is constructed right on the edge of Bilbao's largest park, the very green Doña Casilda Park, as well as the Nervion River, meaning it is in a relatively quiet neighborhood that is still accessible to all of Bilbao's main attractions.” 3
- “And it's a nice walk through town or along the river to the Guggenheim. We stayed in Hotel Bilbao Plaza, which we found on booking.com. Nice room and great location.” 1
- “In spite of the minimalism which can make the decor seem a bit vland, the rooms have all the comforts of an upscale hotel room, such as Wi-Fi (though the connection is poor), flat-screen TVs, minibars and Nespresso coffeemakers.” 3
- “And it's a nice walk through town or along the river to the Guggenheim. We stayed in Hotel Bilbao Plaza, which we found on booking.com. Nice room and great location.” 1
- “But the piece de resistance (no matter if you've booked a standard room or a suite) is the huge, marble bathroom. You could almost sleep in the deep sunken tubs, and there are separate showers, dual sinks, and bidets in each luscious lavatory.” 3
- “The daily free breakfast is a plentiful buffet with lots of food choices and chefs even accommodate special dietary needs of celiacs and lactose-intolerant guests.” 3
- “The highly-rated Aizian restaurant -- which serves contemporary Basque fusion food -- is a major draw for guests and non-guests alike, but be aware that it does shut down for a few weeks in the summer.” 3
- “The 24-hour front desk looks like it never sleeps thanks to a panoramic photo of the city emblazoned on the front (though long lines at the desk also might make patrons feel like they're going to be waiting there all night).” 3
What we still don't know
What we can’t tell you yet, said plainly. These close as we read more coverage of this hotel.
- No reviewer has named an individual room number here yet.
- Nothing reliable said about room types.
- Nothing reliable said about floor level.
- Nothing reliable said about building or wing.
- Nothing reliable said about which side it faces.
- Nothing reliable said about view.
- Nothing reliable said about position on the floor.
- 1 source carries no publication date, so we cannot tell how current it is.
Ask about Melia Bilbao
Answered only from the coverage cited on this page. If nobody has written about your question, it will say so rather than guess.
How much we read
Deep coverage · 19/100We read 0 sources for this property, covering 0 traveler mentions, boiled down to 0 traveler insights worth knowing. Last checked 2026-08-28.
Watch this hotel
We keep reading Melia Bilbao. Tell us when you're staying and we'll follow it until then — you'll hear from us only when the verdict is rewritten, the score moves, or new reviews land. No daily mail, and the watch closes itself after your stay.
Sources
Everything quoted on this page, grouped by traveler insights, outlets, and video & podcast. Counts beside each group show everything we’ve read of that kind; no one kind can carry the score on its own.
View all 3 cited sources▾
Everything quoted on this page.
- 3Melia Bilbao Review: What To REALLY Expect If You Stayoyster.comReview site2024-08-12Ageing8 quotes used
“Rooms are supposedly "soundproofed" but there is still quite a bit of interior hotel noise that can be heard, so if you're concerned about that ask for a room away from the gym, pool, or elevators.”
Read originaloyster.com - 2Having second thoughts about Melia Resort : r/puertovallartareddit.comForum thread2021-08-15AgeingRead originalreddit.com
- 1Bilbao Hotel Recommendations - Rick Steves Travel Forumcommunity.ricksteves.comReview siteDate not stated6 quotes used
“We had a great stay at The Artist Hotel, right across from the Guggenheim. We liked the Hotel Carlton; a few steps from a Metro stop and easy walk to the Guggenheim.”
Read originalcommunity.ricksteves.com