My boyfriend and me stayed in this hotel for three nights booking with Bancotel website and using its paying-checks (each night for 50 euros instead of the normal price for a double room). The room we were given was big, clean and comfortable but interior (no nice views to the city) as usual being a “Bancotel-check guest”. However, views are not that necessary when you are visiting a city and you stay all day long walking down the streets!
The hotel is in a non-modern building, taking into account its façade, but inside everything is new and modern! Decoration is new in rooms too, not fashion but very comfortable.
We didn’t have breakfast (as it was not included) neither lunch or dinner so I can not rate it’s restaurant and bar.
Location and transport:
It is in the Gran Via (one of the main street in Bilbao which lets you directly towards the old city centre) near to Plaza Sagrado Corazón. For its location it seems to be far away from the most interesting places of the city, but this is not true since everything in Bilbao is in a walkable distance from this hotel: Guggenheim Museum and the old city centre. Even though, if you don’t want to walk, there are tram and metro lines, but I insist that it’s not necessary to take the public transport inside bilbao.
The airport-bus (cheap and fast) has also a stop very near to this hotel, which is very useful for not carrying the luggage too much.
If you are interested in visiting other cities by train or by bus, you have also the bus and train station five minutes walking from this hotel!
Restaurants:
In the streets at the back of the hotel (parallel streets to Gran Via), you can find good “pinchos” places and restaurants with good menu prices!

We would repeat our experience in this hotel and we would recommend it for sure! Best price-quality relationship!

I just have been one night but the experience has been perfect as always in NH hotels. Location is good, 10 minutes walking to shopping areas and bus main station and 20-25 minutes to old part of the city. Guggenheim museum also 10-15 minutes walking. Quiet place, new hotel, flat TV at rooms, nice staff, comfortable beds, bathroom details, ... You don't make a mistake with this hotel.

We chose the NH Villa de Bilbao based on reviews and rates listed here on Trip Advisor. We are currently vacationing through Spain and found great coupons available at a travel agency from Halcon Viajes (---) - if you can read Spanish - and paid only 50 Euros per night.

The hotel is nicely located five minutes walk from the tram and slightly farther from the Norman Foster designed Metro system - both great methods to get around. The Guggenheim is likely the main attraction of the city and the Villa de Bilbao is about a 35 minute walk along the river or less if you take the tram.

Inside, staff was polite and professional and spoke English, along with Castillian and Basque (local). Rooms were modern and 'boutique' like, although our rooms had a few maintenance issues with the walls and carpeting, although minor issues they were. As a non-smoker, Spain is one of the most offensive places to visit, with smoking allowed and participated heavily everywhere. This hotel does not offer any non-smoking rooms, although it's doubtful many in Spain do - given their love of smoking and their blind rejection of the dangers now known.

Would recommend this hotel, especially for 50 Euro per night!

I stayed at the NH Villa de Bilbao for two nights in October 2004. It's less than ten minutes' walk to the Guggenheim Museum, and there's a tram stop close by that you can use to get to the Casco Viejo area. The rooms were huge, plush, and modern, and the bathrooms were a delight. The buffet breakfast was good, but expensive (14 euros). The only real negatives were the archaic system of air conditioning (we arrived during a heat wave and had to switch rooms because the AC in our original rooms had been turned off for the season), and the slightly haughty attitude of the front desk staff.

Note that the exterior of the hotel is currently being renovated. We were there at the weekend, so there was no work going on, but it could be a problem during the week.

On the whole, I'd definitely stay here again.