Best Place to Stay for 4-5 Nights in London before Heading to Dublin

The guidebook does a good job of laying out a couple of neighborhoods to review. Based on that we've stayed in 2 different areas - Victoria Station and Kensington. As many people will tell you, it really all depends on what is more important to you. We liked the neighborhood feel of Kensington a lot, but ultimately got tired of the commute on the Tube. Maybe because we do that at home too and wanted something different for vacation! So on our second trip we spent more to stay in Victoria and really appreciated being able to walk to a lot of places.
If convenience and location are important, I would recommend you check out the Victoria Station area. I've also seen a lot of recommendations on this site for the South Bank, search the archives on this forum.
Good luck, London is wonderful!

More importantly - be careful what you rent and from whom.

Some boroughs of London are having a bit of a crackdown on illegal subletting of council flats and the Government is cracking down on illegal rentals too.

London also has a fairly significant problem with fake flat rentals - some people are crooks and take money but don't provide the flat. A not insignificant number of fake flats use estate agent photos or photos of other properties sometimes halfway around the world and fake reviews. Absolutely positively do your homework.. Use streetview to look at the neighborhood and properties nearby. If it is in a council estate it is almost certainly fake. Don't communicate outside of the captive channels provided by AirBnB or Homestay or other reasonably reputable sites, and don't expect AirBnB or the others to intervene if you get stung. Do not send money wires or Western Union or use anything outside the captive channels. Don't be tempted by "owners" offering to lower the price if you go direct.

All that said, you are clearly experienced with AirBnB, as am I, but particularly in London you need to be careful with any flat hire.

We stayed in London for five nights in July. We stayed at the Premier Inn, London Euston. It was about $150 a night. We had to get a room with two beds since we were traveling with our son. One bed rooms were cheaper. It included breakfast and was very clean. It was within walking distance to the British Library and British Museum. Everything else we wanted to see we took the tube. We made the mistake of taking a cab from the airport to the hotel. Big mistake!! Take the tube is very easy and saves you so much money.

Nigel - what exactly do you mean by 'council flats'? We used 4 AirBnB's when we went to Europe this last September for our honeymoon. We used one in Venice, two in Sardinia, and one in Budapest and had great experiences with all of them. I always look for places with a high number of reviews that have a lot of detail about the location, etc. We also would never communicate or pay money outside of AirBnB. I DO however always worry that we're going to get screwed over, even if our experiences thus far have been great.

I would appreciate if you could elaborate on 'council flats' and if there is any neighborhood/s in particular that this may be happening? I am still struggling to nail down which area we should stay in.

I will add, I do like to use 'Superhosts' as well when possible as that is one more step in trying to make sure the owner is legitimate. However, have you seen/heard if instances where even the 'Superhosts' have been found to be ripping people off?

I would recommend stay at Luna&Simone. The 24 bus drops you off right outside their front door. It is about a 15 minute walk to the Pimlico tube station and about 20 minute walk to Victoria Station. There are lot of nice restaurants and pubs close by.

A double will run about £155 per night. Also there is no lift in the hotel, so if you have mobility issues, I would recommend requesting a room on the ground floor.

You can give them a look at www.lunasimonehotel.com

The Travelodge at Southwark is a good modern budget hotel, better than the Travelodge Waterloo. Easy Walking distance to Tate Modern and from there you can cross the river to St Paul's Cathedral. It's also very close to Southwark tube station which is on the Jubilee line which I would say is the best of the tube lines to travel on.
Wherever you stay you are likely to end up using the Tube or buses to get to see all the highlights, so anything within 'Zone 1 ' would be fine, including Kings Cross.

Also just so that you are aware there is a public holiday in England on Monday 28th May and all school children will be on holiday that week until June 1st. I'm not sure whether the same is true in Dublin, worth checking as it may push up demand for flights and hotels that week.