Dublin has an accommodation problem, and it is worth understanding before you book rather than after. The city has a severe housing shortage, hotel supply has not kept pace with visitor numbers, and the result is that rates are high for what you get by western European standards — a mid-range Dublin hotel room frequently costs more than an equivalent in Berlin or Madrid.
The compensation is that the city is small. Almost anywhere within the canals is walkable to everything, which means you can chase price rather than location more aggressively than in most capitals.
The neighbourhoods
Around Grafton Street and St Stephen’s Green (Dublin 2). The premium address. Walkable to everything on the south side, good restaurants, and the highest rates in the city. Quiet at night away from the main streets.
Temple Bar. Central, cobbled, and loud. Genuinely loud — the noise from the main square carries until three in the morning at weekends, and rooms above pubs are not for light sleepers. It is a fine location and a poor night’s sleep, and the rates do not reflect that as much as they should.
Around Trinity and Dame Street. The compromise: central, less noisy than Temple Bar, and well placed for both sides of the river.
The north quays and around O’Connell Street (Dublin 1). Noticeably cheaper for the same walking distance. The immediate area around O’Connell Street has a reputation for feeling rough at night, which is partly deserved and mostly a matter of the specific block — the quays themselves and the Docklands end are fine.
The Docklands / Grand Canal (Dublin 2 and 4). Newer hotels built for the tech companies, which means good rooms, business rates, and weekend availability when the offices empty. Fifteen to twenty minutes’ walk to the centre.
The Liberties (Dublin 8). The best value in the city right now: a run of new hotels around Thomas Street, twenty minutes’ walk from Trinity, and next to the Guinness Storehouse and the distilleries.
Stoneybatter and Smithfield (Dublin 7). Small supply, cheaper, and a genuine neighbourhood with the Phoenix Park at the end of it.
Ballsbridge and Donnybrook (Dublin 4). Leafy, Victorian, embassies and rugby, thirty minutes’ walk or ten on a bus. Quiet and residential and good value at weekends.
Rathmines and Portobello (Dublin 6). Along the canal, twenty-five minutes’ walk to Grafton Street, lots of restaurants, and the closest thing Dublin has to a student-and-young-professional strip.
How far out is too far
Anywhere inside the Grand Canal and the Royal Canal is walkable to the centre. Outside them, judge by the transport:
The DART line along the coast — Dún Laoghaire, Blackrock, Clontarf, Howth — is fast and frequent, and staying on it is a legitimate strategy. Twenty minutes from Dún Laoghaire to the centre.
The Luas tram lines, Red and Green, are frequent and reliable.
Buses are extensive and slow. Do not book somewhere on the basis that a bus route exists.
What to check
Noise, specifically. Ask for a room away from the street in Temple Bar and the Grafton Street area, and be aware that Dublin’s bin collections and deliveries start early.
Whether breakfast is included, because a Dublin hotel breakfast is expensive and the cafés are better.
Parking, if you are driving. Almost no city-centre hotel has it, and multi-storey parking is charged at rates that make a car a serious mistake for a city stay.
When it costs most
Rugby international weekends at the Aviva, concerts at Croke Park and the 3Arena, and St Patrick’s weekend in March. Any of these doubles rates across the city and fills it — check the fixture list before choosing dates, because a Six Nations Saturday is the difference between a reasonable rate and an absurd one.
Bloomsday, 16 June, is busy but manageable.
January and February are by some distance the cheapest and the city is perfectly good in them.
The alternatives
Hostels in Dublin are numerous, central and genuinely good, and several have private rooms at guesthouse rates.
Short-term lets are heavily restricted — Ireland has tightened rules on short-term letting in rent-pressure zones, which covers Dublin, and enforcement has increased. Listings do get removed. Licensed guesthouses and aparthotels are the safer option.
Guesthouses and B&Bs in Drumcondra, Clontarf and Rathgar are the traditional Irish option, cheaper than hotels, and frequently much nicer.
A rule of thumb
Draw a circle with Trinity College at the centre and a twenty-five minute walk as the radius. Everything inside it is a legitimate base, and within that circle the price varies by more than a factor of two for the same convenience.
The only reason to pay Dublin 2 rates is if you specifically want to step out of the door into Grafton Street. For most trips, ten extra minutes on foot from the Liberties or the north quays buys a materially better room or a materially smaller bill.