They’re a two-sided marketplace where the parties are incentivized to be adversarial. Every renter want to pay less / get money back, every landlord wants to minimize cost and stick renters with extra costs.

There’s a reason municipalities have landlord/tenant laws, and Airbnb’s whole thing was offering hotel-like services at sub-hotel pricing, without hitting landlord/tenant.

They’ve arbitraged themselves out of existence (but not before making a nice profit for Airbnb shareholders).

Maybe it's a regional issue. I have over 150 stays in my account (digital nomad for the last 10 years), and I've not once had any unreasonable charge or conflict with a host.

Ride sharing apps too. Taxi drivers defrauding with fake pictures of vomit etc

Any service with terms basically that say "we have the right to charge your card whatever we like for whatever reason " will eventually abuse it

See also: car rental