Advance booking for Thailand in high season?

There are two situations where I book rooms in advance: (i) when first arriving somewhere, to save myself the bother of looking when tired after a long flight, and (ii) if I want to stay somewhere in particular.

Not booking rooms in advance is as much a matter of travel style as necessity. I haven't bothered booking, even in high season. But, that's because I was prepared to look and was also prepared to stay in the lower budget places which half the time don't take reservations anyway. I was also prepared to move up a class or two if for some odd reason that's where the vacancies were. I have a wide margin of financial flexibility .. which is its own sort of freedom. Big cities, I never worry about it. Also, I normally do not to go to places with high holiday tourism density, such as island beach resorts, so don't know about the need to reserve.

I rarely take internal flights. If it was up to me, I'd book in advance .. as far in advance as when I know where I want to go. It's one less thing to worry about. I don't see a commitment to a specific date as a massive compromise on my 'freedom'. If you want to leave it to chance then it is still partly a matter of keeping up to date on the route/flight you might take, how busy it is and when.

You can always find accommodation, but internal flights and transportation might be better booked in advance. If you have a set plan and a short amount of time then there is no problem booking in advance. Our last two trips to Thailand have only been for 15 nights due to work commitments so we chose where we wanted to go and booked in advance, it just means no time lost looking for accommodation. On previous longer trips I have booked my first couple of nights in Bangkok, then played it by ear.

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