Pune has quietly become one of India's biggest student cities. Between engineering colleges in Wakad and Hinjewadi, management institutes near Baner, and the older, more established campuses around Fergusson College Road, there's a fresh wave of eighteen-year-olds arriving every June with two suitcases and no idea where they're going to sleep for the next four years.

If you're one of them, or a parent trying to sort this out from another city, you already know the problem. Pune's rental market is a mess of WhatsApp forwards, half-updated PG listings, and brokers who show you a "fully furnished" room that turns out to have a mattress and not much else. Budget matters, but so does not getting scammed. Here's what actually goes into finding a decent, affordable hostel in this city.