For the first 2 weeks of my assignment, I lived at the Towneplace Suites Marriott hotel. My stay was enjoyable because I had a full kitchen, free breakfast, and was able to accumulate more Marriott Rewards points.
In the mean time I was provided with a couple of apartment options and visited the apartments before narrowing them down to one. The apartment I selected was a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom furnished apartment. It was nice because the agency had the entire apartment filled with everyday items such as dishes, towels, bed linen, pillows, a television, etc. Since I often stay at Airbnbs or hotels, I do not typically travel with these items, so it was great that I didn’t have to worry about obtaining them. Once you start jotting down all of the household items you need to travel with, it starts to accumulate.
I am usually pretty open to housing options when working locum tenens. I think the most important thing to me is having a kitchen, especially for longer assignments. Be sure to ask about your housing options BEFORE you accept an assignment. Believe it or not, some agencies do not offer apartments as housing alternatives. Other times, the town you will be working in does not have anything better to live out of than a motel 8.
Rarely, you may be able to negotiate a housing stipend but be aware of low-ball offers. For example, a fellow traveling Nurse Practitioner was offered $2000/mo housing stipend for the San Francisco Bay Area! In somewhere like Texas, that goes a long way. However, the average agency spends $4000/mo on housing for locum tenens nurse practitioners in the Bay area, since housing is extremely expensive there! Luckily, I was able to provide her with that insight and she re-negotiated her housing stipend.
