Hotel Ripa - Bilbao, Spain 

Ripa Hotel has an awful booking service
Posted: Wed, Jul 07 2004
I recently called Hotel Ripa in Bilbao to book two nights for my 61 year old mother, who was travelling on her own and looking forward to her trip. I called on March 16th 2004 and confirmed a single room for two nights, with bathroom and requested an outside room (as the inside ones are apparently dull). I then emailed them to send me a confirmed booking and check again that they had an outside room. They then emailed me back and confirmed the booking, without saying about the outside room. When I emailed them back again about confirming an outside room they emailed me back very rudely saying the hotel was now full and they had cancelled my booking. I was furious and had never had a hotel do this before in any city in the world - requesting an outside room and instead of letting you know it was not available anymore they cancelled the booking! They then said if I wanted to re-book I would have to go to the website and do this all over again: 3 weeks after I had the original confirmation! Hotel Ripa said that they would be on holiday and I'd have to wait another week to book. This is a very unprofessional attitude and I DO NOT RECOMMEND HAVING ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS HOTEL. I'll take my business elsewhere.

Hotel Ripa - Excellent location
Posted: Tue, May 13 2003
Just a couple of minutes walk into the maze of bars and cafe's of the old town, right next to metro, bus and two railway stations. Good prices and Clean. No breakfast but then in Bilbao everyone has brekfast in the cafes anyway. Internal rooms can be noisy and gloomy. Good hotel if all you need is a shower and a clean bed in an excellent location and don't want to break the bank. If you are tall check out the beds before you check in. Can be a bit short for somepeople.