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43 - 48 of 101 reviews
Reviewed 4 August 2014

The airport pick up was so dodgy. No communication and a random stop off in the middle of nowhere.

Upon arrival the staff asked for my partners passport then tried to direct us to our room. When I asked for the passport back, they claim the "lost it" !! It had only been 3 minutes since handing it to them. They started speaking in thai to each other and this man tried to hurry us up to our room. We were not leaving without our passport! Finally the girls reception girls looked at each other then ducked down and found the passport under the table... IT WAS SO DODGY!

Finally we got to our room the safe was broken.

We ordered room service and were not expecting two men to barge in our room. Lucky we had the door chain on which made a massive loud noise, although very frightening. They delivered the horrible food and stuck out there hand for a tip with absolutely no communication the entire time.

As the safe was broken, we had chained our bags to the bathroom pipe as we 100% knew this hotel was dodgy. When we returned to our bedroom, our suitcases were pushed apart and tampered with. Lucky we were only staying one night as this place was horrible.

We ordered cocktails to try and unwind before our pickup and requested no ice twice. They didn't listen and serviced both drinks with ice!? argh.

Then our transport to our (paid) ferry trip didn't come and the hotel staff were so unhelpful with calling the ferry company.

This hotel was only near major busy roads with no traffic lights. (Not that they believe in stopping at traffic lights) There were no beaches or anything near by. The room itself was actually run down and felt gross

All and all - absolutely SCARY EXPERIENCE and do not recommend this hotel or location to any tourist

Date of stay: September 2013
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Thank zm_kelly
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed 1 July 2014

We have stayed at the "old" Dara hotel several times due to convenience of Phuket Central and the kids' school. It has always been pleasant. The only issue we have ever had is poor internet connection. Last week we booked a room over the phone and when we arrived the hotel was closed for renovation and we were directed to the new building with huge difficulties. The new building for sure looked better in every way. My husband and son stayed there for 2 nights while I was in the hospital with my daughter.
The last night we had two rooms because our daughter just came out of surgery in her stomach and needed an extra day of recovery before traveling back in a car for 3 hrs. My daughter and myself had not slept for 2 days so needed a good night of sleep. We spent more or less the whole night with a power cut on the 7th floor and nobody taking action. We went to the lobby to find the manager who was sleeping, when he finally turned up he really did not care. We carried our daughter (14 yrs old 170 cm tall) all the way down to the lobby for fresh air and nobody took any action. Staff awake sat outside laughing and not doing anything to solve the problem even the buildings next to us had electricity. We were not even offered a cold drink. NOTHING. We have to say this is one of the worst hotel experiences we have ever had. Ignorant careless and no empathy. We got a refund but honestly we would have preferred a generator to be working and get the night of sleep we needed.

Date of stay: June 2014
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
    • Value
    • Location
    • Sleep Quality
    • Rooms
    • Cleanliness
    • Service
2  Thank Maria W
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Info_DARA-HOTEL, Manager at Dara Hotel Phuket, responded to this reviewResponded 15 July 2014

Dear Guest,

First of all, please kindly accept sincere apology. To explain clearly for the situation after midnight of June 29,2014 there were few times sort period) of power surging (voltage spike) from Phuket Provincial Electrical Authority which effect hotel's 3 phases power system resulting automatic shut down in our system for massive failure protection as we are utilizing many of 3 phases electrical equipment named as 2 elevators, Chiller-Air Conditioner system. The explanation of other buildings who didn't use 3 phases electrical system (normal houses for example) voltage spike in some phase will not effect them as lighting or some equipment have range from 110-240 v. that why you saw other building is still lightening. The Critical period was from 4.00 am- 7.00 am. where power was completely shut down as there were continuity of power surging and Electrical Authority could not resolve it until late 7.00 am next morning.

Explanation of manager and staff awoke and hang out laughing outside hotel's lobby was total misunderstanding, while they are trying to solve the problem by themselves but there was nothing they could possibly do beside our power generator was not 100% installed at that time causing no power back up and hotel would like to apologizes greatly for that.

Guest had later alert manager about the great inconvenience and request to transfer to other hotel but at 4.00 am there was great difficulty to do, guest would not accept any apologies and ask for refund but didn't clear how much to refund.

The next morning after few rest after 12.00 hrs. guest came down to lobby and ask for full refund of total 4 rooms nights (including those 2 nights which guest's husband and son stayed earlier without any disturbance including 2 rooms stayed that night) manager did refund whole amount requested by guest but yet guest also went complain on TripAdvisor's to express their anger but not mention about the whole refund,while guests were stayed at the property without any cost charged not even breakfast they have eaten including the stayed period without any problems sound a bit unfair to hotel.

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Reviewed 2 January 2014

We found a deal for a Junior Suite on booking.com and it was great value. We had it so last minute that it was at a price of the standard room almost, so the room was great - clean, modern. I have read the other comments and it is true that the lights are super dim - usually I don't mind but in the bathroom it's a must for any woman! We were pleasantly surprised by the cool, modern swimming pool area. The wi-fi is great.

Breakfasts are great with a variety of omelettes, eggs, bacon, pastries, fresh coffee which was also a nice surprise because we were used to noodles for breakfast. The staff were very helpful. The hotel offers a complimentary tuk-tuk service to the nearby shopping centre which is useful for finding taxis.

Overall a super pleasant stay!!!

Date of stay: January 2014
  • Trip type: Travelled as a couple
    • Value
    • Location
    • Sleep Quality
    • Rooms
    • Cleanliness
    • Service
1  Thank polarbear1992
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed 23 December 2013 via mobile

Small new 3 star standard basic hotel located at a junction. Nothing nearby save its within walking distance to Central Festival Mall. Hotel provides free shuttle to 3 locations only. Central Festival Mall, Big C and weekend night market which are all nearby. No proper footpath though so have to dash across roads and manoeuvre through the traffic if you decide to walk. You need to take a cab or tuk tuk if you want to go to Phuket town. No difference in price. Nothing much to see or do in Phuket town. Small clean room with all the basic stuff provided. Big fridge. Cable TV and wifi available free. Small lobby and miniscule pool and cafeteria. Staff mostly helpful but need more work on the friendly section. At least one reception staff working night was extremely impatient when asked with too many questions to the extent of being rude to most. Security guard double up as a bell boy and technician double up as driver. All the better, well known and chic hotels are located at Patong beach

Date of stay: December 2013
Trip type: Travelled with family
Thank RKTH
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed 21 November 2013

I recently stayed in this hotel, I was happy with everything considering the low price I paid until the last day, when we where checking out I told the lady at reception that I wanted to book a ferry to phi phi island for 600 baht that included transport to the pier from the hotel. She told me that the ferry (cruiser) was booked up so I had to order a taxi which cost me 500 baht. The taxi man by the way is the most annoying taxi driver I have ever came across and he works for Dara hotel . He is always trying to get you to pay for things in advance and trying to bring you places you don't want to go. Anyway when we got to the pier we noticed that the very same boat we booked with for a total of 600 baht going to phi phi was the same company that was advertised in Dara hotel saying 600 baht for the ferry and transport to the pier. So they had lied to me about the boat being full and instead of paying 600 baht I paid a total of 1100, 600 for the ferry and 500 for taxi. So basically they told me the ferry(cruiser) was fully booked and when I got to the pier we where approached by a guy working for the same company and we bought our tickets there. Also there was a lot of noises in the room we stayed in , a rat or a possum running around inside the walls . Swimming pool is amazing tho and the location is terrible. Average hotel and I thought I'd let yas know about the whole boat situation.

Date of stay: November 2013
    • Value
    • Location
    • Rooms
    • Cleanliness
    • Service
Thank Cillianire
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Info_DARA-HOTEL, General Manager at Dara Hotel Phuket, responded to this reviewResponded 29 November 2013

Dear Guest,

Sincerely apologies for any inconvenience may occurred during your stay, we may response to your comments as follows:

- Ferry Ticket : Because of seats limited for mini van transportation transfer available each trip was the reason The Phi Phi Cruiser claimed the booking was full, Hotel was not lie.
In fact, if Hotel can sell more ticket why would not we sell ticket to guest? No point to lie.

Ferry Company also has their own ticket selling booth at pier and ticket cost the same as including transportation 600 THB (it is their cost structure and to ease guests coming from hotels), not sure why booth selling ticket mentioned about this ticket which inclusive of transfer anyway, since all guest going to pier to buy a ticket was going by themselves (own arranged transportation) surely there was no problem about limited van seats.

- Taxi driver : Hotel had short list registered freelance taxi drivers to accommodate guests to minimize unpleasantness may occurred to guest. Or guest may left wallet/ luggage in taxi then we can find out who was the taxi and got stuff back to guests. Since we got complain we will banned from hotel's list. Sorry again for this taxi unpleasant behavior.

- Location : Hotel locates nearby Phuket famous shopping mall (Central Festival Phuket) but apparently there is a underpass construction on going cause minor disturbance and harder to cross the road to Shopping Mall. Underpass construction is one of Phuket high way upgrading 2 years plan to made this area be a center of Phuket

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