I am traveling with one other girl to Ireland Oct 19-26. Since we will only be there a week we have decided not to do much planning - but rather rent a car and see where the roads take us. She wants to book a few hostels in advance out of fear there won't be any available when we get to our destination (which we haven't really even laid out a plan for.) I think we can get by with finding places as we arrive, being we are going to be flying be the seat of our pants. Is finding open hostels during this time going to be a problem? It is the "off-peak" travel season, right? Opinions wanted 
October Ireland Travel-Hostel Booking
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Winging it the t2p way. or how we did Ireland before we moved over.
Book the 1st and last nights. Pin a Michelin 712 map on an empty wall. Decide any must see places and pin them. work out some stepping stones(towns) on a rough route. get a list of 3 guest houses and 1 hotel for these potential places. email the hotels and ask if there are (1) any events or festivals locally on your possible dates. (2) if the hotel is doing any special offers on your possible dates. Talk to your host and ask in the local pub what's worth seeing. Phone ahead at breakfast for the evening accommodation. Only book one night at once, if the place is good or there's things to do and see within a 30mile radius book an extra night.
Tourist Information Bureau are great and will always find you a bed for the night. Provided there is one available and of course provided they are open! not much fun knocking on doors at 6pm.
In October you should be just fine. I wouldn't pre-book (except for your arrival day, and probably for the last night so you are near whichever airport you are using.
But otherwise I'd keep a totally open itinerary -- weather can cause a change of plans at any time.
I'd maybe do some searching for places that look nice/in your budget and keep a list so you have at least some fall back options. The tourist offices in many towns will find/book rooms for you as well.
I also wouldn't limit myself to hostels. There are MANY decent budget B&Bs
was posting the same time as Tony . . .
And if you haven't already discovered it, HostelWorld.com is a great resource for researching hostels. My daughter started using it when she traveled through Ireland during her year of study abroad there and used it again last year when she and her brother backpacked through Europe.
You could check out some possible hostel choices before you go to Ireland and have the info with you to use as you travel around.