THEFT!
CRISTIAN REQUIRED A DEPOSIT NOT ON THE AIRBNB PLATFORM UPON ARRIVING AND THEN DID NOT RETURN IT
I rented a camper van from Cristina on Airbnb. Upon arriving at the location where he said I could pick it up the woman, Sofia, who was supposed to do the check-in told me that I would have to pay a 500 EUR deposit in cash or via Paypal. This WAS NOT mentioned in the description listed on Airbnb. It was also NEVER discussed in the chat before arriving.
I sent Cristian 500 EURs via Paypal using the "send money to a friend" feature while Sofia watched over my shoulder. Then she showed me around the van. At one point she opened the glove box and said "All the papers and security stuff is in here". Then she moved on.
Later in the trip I was pulled over for a regular traffic stop by the police. They asked for my driver's license, the papers for the car, the yellow reflective jacket and a reflective triangle. I gave them everything in the glove box plus my driver's license. The officer asked for the triangle and I said I didn't know. We both searched the vehicle, opening all the doors looking under the seats, etc. We couldn't find it. The officer explained that it was the responsibility of the owner of the vehicle to both have the legal safety equipment available and make sure that the driver knew where it was. He wrote a ticket with a 60 EUR fine SPECIFICALLY in the name of the owner (Cristian).
When I returned to Lisbon I gave Sofia the ticket and explained what had happened. She looked around the van for a while and began to dig under the front seat. Deep under the seat and buried under a heavy mat was blue bag, inside of that bag was the orange reflective triangle. Sofia attempted to call Cristian but he didn't pick up the phone.
I had to leave to get on a plane but she said he would be contacting me about the refund shortly. The next day I reminded Cristian of the deposit and he sent me 350 EURs saying he needed to hold the rest "for possible tolls". Seven days later when I again reminded Cristian of the deposit he sent me 23.45 EURs for a total refund of 373.45 EURs.
He claimed that everything else was his because of expenses.
The expenses he listed:
42 EURs in Tolls
60 EURs for the ticket
25 EURs for Paypal commissions
I can agree that I probably consumed 42 EURs in tolls. I consider the other items (the ticket and Paypal commissions) to be theft.