The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 10 plus 4 letter word PEPPERCORN RENT
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
P
E
P
P
E
R
C
O
R
N
R
E
N
T
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "cost of cheap accommodation" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case cost of cheap accommodation = peppercorn rent.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.