I had my '56 Chevy posted on Craiglist. I received a call from a man who said he was very interested and wanted to trade me a 1978 Mercedes 280CE for her. I sent him DETAILED pictures of everything from the motor to the rust on the trunk. And described ALL the things that were wrong with her. He said we had a deal and that he would be driving up the next day to make the trade. On the way, he said he was running late and did I know of any motels nearby. I told him yes and that with his permission, I would reserve a room for him and even offered to have dinner ready if they were hungry. I went to the least expensive motel in town, which cost me approx. $65.00 and paid for a room. I also had to leave a $20 deposit on the room. When they arrived it was late and they said they wanted to sleep first and would come over in the morning to handle business.

I awoke at 9:00am with a phone call from this man saying he was on his way back home. That he had come onto my property and looked at my car and it had too much rust for him and that he had placed the $20 deposit from the room on the front seat of my car! When I asked him about reimbursing me for at least half of the motel, he refused saying that it cost him too much money to make the trip up here and he wouldn't do that!

I was devastated! My car is NOT rusted out! I sent pictures and DETAILED description of her and he was SO ready to make this deal! And I think it was very sneaky of him to have trespassed on my property without my knowledge to look at my car then call me as he's exiting. He could have showed me what was wrong and explained in person why he was not interested. AND then to not even split the motel bill with me! I did that as a favor to make his trip easier.

Is this breach of oral contract? Can I sue him for anything?

He could say that it is your word against his word.
He could say that he feels you should owe him for half of the expense of his gas that it took for him to make the trip.
He is not obligated to buy the car and many people, if they decide to change their mind, often feel obligated to make up excuses why they don't want it no matter how lame they may be.
Did you have no trespassing signs up?
Did they say they would pay half the motel room?

It doesn't sound like you have anything you can sue for. I don't see anything illegal either.

It just depends, did you pay for the room and assume he would repay you half or did he say"get me a motel room and I will pay you back"?

Sounds like you did it to be nice... and you have no recourse

Other than the motel room did you have any expenses?

I see no case, you as a seller, offered to do something, that you expected to help in a sale, I do similar every day, take people to lunch, buy them tickets to the Braves game and more. Just hoping they will decide to buy.

You did not have a full deal until both of you meet and viewed the cars, there was no "firm" contract but it was always based upon acceptace upon review.

Now to be honest, did you ask him where it was parked ? My bet, he never looked at it, never intended to but figured out a way to get a free motel

Did you just offer, or did he suggest you reserve him a room,
Since I can reserve a room from my cell phone in any city of the US.

I would say this was a professional scam artist, who uses craigs list to find free motel rooms all over the US when he is traveling.