Living in Dublin
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Dublin is nearly as expensive as London and finding proper accommodation is complicated and very time-consuming and the inconvenient truth is that it gets worse every year. Landlords rip people off and students from abroad are an easy enough target. Shared rooms are not only reality in dorms and hostels but in actual flats. Shared rooms still cost around 500 per person per month which I find horrific and it is a shame that there are numerous people taking up with this. The only way to stop such a terrible, exploiting market is to stop accepting such living standards but it seems to be getting harder and harder.
In Germany, I paid about 300 Euros per month for my room in a student residence- not luxurious but I had my own small studio including bathroom and kitchen. In Dublin, 300 Euros for such a room is likely, too- but instead of per month, it is per week which is a total rip off. All the residences are absolutely modern and chic accommodations.
When searching for privately arranged accommodations, you can check out roomgo, daft, nestpick, spotahome and hosting powers. There are multiple other sources, of course. Make sure to check prices- pw is per week, pm is per month and an added pp may mean per person. PCM would be per counting month.
Another thing...S C A M is a huge problem in Dublin and you need particularily careful when using pages such as roomgo. Do never, ever pay a deposit in advance and when being asked to send them a copy of your ID card or passport, you can be sure to be in contact with a scammer. Usually, agencies are reliable. They, too, want you to pay in advance. Colleges generally provide some help with finding accommodations. Still, it consumes a lot of time and nerves to arrange accommodations by yourself and navigating through the Internet is not as much fun as planning vacation.
Host families are reasonably priced alternatives. However, most of them live not exactly in the center and getting to, e.g. Trinity, which is central, might take you an hour by walking. As public transportation is pretty well connected, you won't face problems getting there, but again it is pricey (see Getting Around Dublin).
How to stay is a matter of personality and budget and I won't lay down all the pros and cons because they would be my pros and cons and I think you should make up your own decision. However, I will share my experiences with those who ask (just contact me here) as I have stayed both with a host family, at a student residence and in a shared apartment.
As for me, I refused to support the monetary rip off of student residences and decided to throw myself into finding flatmates. If you intend to do the same, just be prepare to be cautious 24/7.
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An interesting article I found can be found here. It displays how easily people fall into the scammers' traps, or nearly make it out of it.
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