Necessity of booking places to sleep

It's not a black-and-white situation, in Dublin or anyplace, on any date. It's more of a continuum, At one end of the scale, you have lots of great options, cool places that are cheap and may be a highlight of your trip. At the other end of the scale, you have very few choices, which tend to be expensive, not really what you want, etc. The sooner you book, the more (and better) options you will have. The later you book, the fewer (and worse) your options will be.

You can always find a place to sleep. But if you are looking for a place for the night on that night, later and later into the evening, your options will be very narrow. The best options usually get snapped up early - how early depends on lots of factors.

Personally, I like to have all my accommodations booked in advance. In my experience, that frees you up to enjoy your time. Wandering around trying to find an acceptable place to sleep can use up valuable time.

My daughter and her husband honeymooned in Ireland last October. (Delayed a day by the hurricane!) As they travelled they asked each innkeeper for recommendations for their next stop. It resulted in a personal hand-off from one place to the next and they were treated so well.

I can’t tell if you’re staying in Dublin for your trip... but if you’re travelling to different towns, this may work for you too.

Certainly helps that it’s not the busiest tourist season.

If you just have two people and only need one room, you can definitely get by booking the night before or the morning of your stay. My mother and I stayed on in the beginning of October after my siblings and their spouses went home, and we just called ahead either the morning or the night before. I researched on TripAdvisor, got a few options, then started calling, and got great places all three nights.

For Dublin, I would book ahead, also for any special locations like a castle.

Travelling on the fly could work at this time of year. Just know that you will be using some of your precious vacation time finding a place to sleep and it might not be your first choice. Personally, I always book in advance, but then I am very picky about where I lay my head. Also, doing the research helps me get to know the country and where I want to go. I’m a firm believer in having a plan.

It depends upon where you are going. In Dublin and Galway, definitely book ahead. My wife and I left it pretty open on our 2002 Ireland trip, just rolled into town, knocked on a B&B door and we were set in places like Kenmare and Ennis. We called ahead the same day in Kilkenny. This was in April and it worked out fine, but things have changed. Ireland was cheap then, this was before the Celtic tiger economy and the Euro was 80 cents. On our return trip in 2016 we booked every night in advance. Now the internet makes it a lot easier to book great places in advance. Others do their research and plan in advance, if you don't you might end up with substandard, poorly located, or expensive lodging. The places no one else wants. But if there is any country where you can still wait to plan accommodations on the fly, Ireland might be it. Also, the time of year would work in your favor. If you are trying to avoid any travel planning about where you even want to go, I'd say that is very misguided. Even with your lodging booked there is still some flexibility, what time you arrive and what time your depart, etc. In summary I encourage you to book most nights in advance.

Even though you only mention Dublin, the question indicates you’ll be traveling around. A few years ago we visited the first half of October. Other than our first and last nights that we had reservations, we winged it and had little trouble finding accommodations. The only place we trouble was in Galway when we arrived later in the day (a couple hours after most people stop for the evening). Believe we tried 4 B&Bs before we found one. No problem the rest of the trip. If you know where you’ll be staying each night, you may as well reserve ahead of time. On our trip, we had no idea where we would be spending each night.