What do you think of this holiday rental situation through acquaintance

I get it.

They sound cheap and opportunistic. I wonder how many other friends have stayed there and been miserable.

Where was it? Some locations are worth putting up with a bit of inconvenience for; some are not.

If the bed was literally broken you should have told them, how will they rectify this for the next rental if nobody actually tells them!? If you didn’t give any indication something was wrong she might have assumed you were leaving due to a family emergency or weather/ illness etc, she may not have asked why if your not close friends so as not to be intrusive.

I also don’t see why moving the mattress to the floor wasn’t a good enough workaround, a mattress on the floor doesn’t suddenly become more uncomfortable than when it’s on the bed (unless I suppose you have mobility issues which make getting in/ out difficult).

I wouldn’t have expected Wi-Fi, surely most people have mobile data on their phones anyway. Some rentals do have it but certainly not all.

It does seem fishy that the friend didn’t ever put you in touch with the cousin, my guess would be friend told the cousin she was going to stay there for free and then has sub-let it you so that she can take the cash.

The words " due dilligence" came to my mind immediately too. I'd never go anywhere I'd not seen reviews for unless it was a friend and I knew them. Completely on you op. It's like when people selling things come to the door and use the "your neighbours bought it/signed up for it" why would that help me decide, I don't know the bloke that lives across the road.

I think your friend sub let - I wonder if the owner knew.

There's not much you can do about a refund after the event - you have to ask for it, she's not going to offer, but you should definitely give feedback about the awful bed, and anything else you were told to expect that wasn't provided.

Glad the owner was there, at least you weren’t trespassing! 🤣 Your friend obviously thought she was doing you a favour - did she arrange a price deduction or something of that nature?

TBH probably didn’t ask reason for early departure in case it opened dialogue about partial refund.

As this wasn’t a proper business arrangement I would maybe tell them about the bed and wifi being a problem for you and move on. That way they can sort it out for next occupant.

And you also know by not raising it you've left the problem for the next person, like the last person did for you.

If you cannot complain why would you do anything different if they asked how it had been. Would still be a complaint.

Just one of those things, really, nothing much you can do about it now except chalk it up to experience.

Really, it had the potential to go wrong from the start, when you weren't in direct communication with the owner of the flat and it was all done via your friend.

Yes it's a bit odd but also probably not worth thinking about too much.

Maybe your friend thought that as a grown up you'd just open your mouth and tell them there was an issue. Why play games and wait for them to read your mind?

Exactly @Dotto

Thats why I said uncomfortable isn't a reason and how was it broken
If the next people to rent it report the bed broken then the OP is very likely to be blamed for it.

Did you see the property photos, ask for reviews, what amenities available including wifi, TV, swimming pools etc? Why would you choose that over an actual holiday apartment? Was it really cheap? Did you give a reason for leaving early, if you didn't give reason then how can they know what was the problem. You aren't that close so maybe the person didn't want to intrude and ask.

Unless the host is told the beds broken how would they know.

Not hard so tell them. “Hey we are going to have to leave early the beds broke so cannot sleep there”

Personally I don't care about WiFi as so many phone contracts have so much data included it's barely an issue for a few days.
The bed is odd but you didn't actually say anything to them either. So they may have assumed you wanted to visit another place or whatever. It's all very informal.
I think renting from or via friends is always tricky unfortunately

Yes, if a bed is broken it gets fixed or replaced. This is how it works.

Perhaps the previous occupants also didn't report the broken bed, so they think you have broken it and not told them?

I think you should have given them a chance to make it right, instead of feeling hard done by.

You were crazy not yo have direct contact in the first place eith the owner. Did you ask about wifi? You didn’t know if the place met rental safety standards such as carbon monoxide/boiler or anything. How would you even know if the owner had agreed to the rental? How do you know the acquaintance didn’t put a bit on top of the price, or even paid the person?

Think you need to suck it up and be glad you had accommodation available when you showed up - there could’ve been someone else (with a contract) there.

That all sounds rather odd and I would have walked away.

Almost sounds as if friend had rented it, didn't want it and was palming it off on you?!?!

Lots of holiday places have no WiFi. Do you NEED WiFi on a holiday?

How many of you had to fit in one bed?
A bed being uncomfortable is not a reasonable reason for leaving either
When you say it was lopsided do you mean the base was broken

Did you ask for help with this, for it to be fixed or replaced?