Accomodation

I probably joined this discussion group a little too late because i have already started with my placement. One of my greatest challenges was finding suitable accomodation. My host institution is not providing accomodation but they were 'assisting' with finding me accomodation. Unfortunately their idea of a 'suitable' accomodation was not the same as mine considering that i had to be paying for that with my stipend. I finally did manage to find my way around it though. This left me wandering on one thing. What is the best approach? To have my accomodation covered already and my stipend comes without accomodation funds or to find my own accomodation. It probably depends on settings. Mine is probably unique because i will be moving between two countries during the course of my placement and i wander what happens when i relocate for 2 months. My question for discussion really is what is the best way to deal with accomodation issues for fellows?