The best thing about the hotle is that it is next to central plaza which is good for shopping and cinema.
Otherwise there is not much point as that is the only reason for the location, Average rooms, average breakfast, friendly staff.

We stayed here on a Saturday night ready to get the early ferry to Phi Phi which worked very well - the reception staff can organise this for you (we paid for a transfer to Ko Lanta via Phi Phi which cost 1000 baht per person). The hotel is on a fairly busy road which meant it was quite difficult to cross and explore the area - we had no idea there is a free tuk tuk serivice, doh!

The Central Festival Mall is huge and good if you need anything - I needed a cardigan and some mosquito repellent which I found easily. We had dinner here and fancied something that wasn't noodle/rice based as we'd been in Thailand for quite some time at this point. We went to Sizzler (American food cooked by Thai people) - it made for a good change and we got some really tasty deep fried shrimp.

The hotel was odd - very clean and had everything you needed for a short stay, but I suspect it was originally a block of flats as the layout is unusual. The bright colours were amusing and it was quite fun for 1 night but any longer and this place might have been a little basic for us. We didn't have a very good nights sleep as there is a karaoke bar nearby which was loud (it was a Saturday night but we were exhausted). Also (it seems this is common to most hotels in Thailand) the air conditioning unit was pretty loud so ear plugs were necessary.

The breakfast was ok - nice french toast, a fairly large selection.

Dara hotel is not a fancy, but if you know about phuket town area, this hotel's condition is the best!
Frankly speaking, it is hard to move to phuket town, so if you need to go to town often that will be hard.
This hotel is just perfect for shopping, specially complimentary tuktuk service between hotel and central festival. Central Festival, Index, Lotus is within 15 minutes walking distance. Hotel room is big enough for 2 adult. Staff was incredibly kind and helpful! Breakfast is okay.

Let's start with the positives: Dara Hotel is a budget hotel in close proximity (150 metres) to Central Festival Shopping Mall. There is also a free tuk tuk service to Central. The aircon worked well and was quiet by Thai standards. The pool area is a lovely spot to catch some sun in the afternoon. We booked a Junior Suite for 2 nights and paid just $120 all up, which included an OK breakfast. We chose to stay here in between stays at beach resorts in Krabi and Nai Yang beach to give us a convenient base from which to do some shopping where we would avoid the awful Patong area. After staying here we will reconsider our dislike of Patong.
The decor here, which looks funky and chic on the website, is in reality kind of like an Eastern European Ikea showroom without the decorator items. Either that or student housing. It's like it started with a great idea, then for lack of money was finished off with coats of gaudy paint on bare concrete rather than plaster on the walls and tiles on the floor. Now I like a firm bed but this bed was so hard I actually had to check there was a mattress under the sheet and not a plank of wood. Thank goodness for cheap Thai massages because after sleeping on that bed you need one. It was so bad on the second night my husband had to sleep on the sofa while I arranged the thankfully oversized pillows on the bed lenghtways and slept on them. A room service tray with leftover food on it sat down the hallway for the duration of our stay. There was free internet in the lobby but it worked sporadically and the staff didn't seem to care.
Look this place is cheap...and I was just thinking on my second morning that it's OK for a budget motel when I got out of the shower and went to wrap a towel around me when out jumped a spider as big as my hand and ran up the bathroom wall. When I called reception and asked for someone to come and get rid of it the receptionist had no idea what I was talking about...didn't understand spider, bug, insect - nothing. Seriously if you are going to work in tourism in Thailand surely your front of house needs to have a basic understanding of English! Certainly we have taught the staff a new word after we dropped the offending spider (in plastic bag) at the hotel desk. If all that's not bad enough this is the only hotel I have ever stayed at where they expect you to hand over cash (1000 baht) on check-in as security which is returned on checkout. We would not go back to this place.