AirBNB is not the one to blame here, this problem is extremely hard to solve and all you can do is minimize the risk by renting well vetted apartments from superhosts.
AirBNB left Russia and friends told me that private renting experience went downhill. You can't expect AirBNB to solve all problems and edge cases, only to minimize them. You should prepare to eventually get screwed anyways.
There are bunch of additional issues here, like having hidden cameras in your rented place. How you expect AirBNB to solve this?
They're charging very high premium for what they offer and this creating wrong expectations in the beginning that they will solve all sorts things for you if something goes wrong, but at the end you realize that you have to deal with it by yourself at 10pm when you arrive, in foreign country.
Yes, AirBNB is possible to blame. US state attorney general should investigate them.
Thought about starting simple AirBNB guest insurance company, but if it was successful, AirBNB would just offer it as a service and business would be dead within days.
If you’re going to book on AirBNB only use super hosts, since odds of them canceling a stay is significantly less, especially compared to new listings.
In my case, hosts cancelled booking with less than 24-hours, messaged me via AirBNB’s system asking me to cancel it and saying they would refund my off platform (which I obviously didn’t do and is against AirBNB’s terms of service) then AirBNB cancelled the stay for them, told me to pay the host 3-4x more, then when I told them that’s bait-and-switch and fraud, they told me to take them to arbitration, and allowed the host to relist the booking for 2-3 times more and rebook the stay.
Do NOT trust AirBNB as a guest - always have a backup plan and funds available to cover it.