Airbnb does this because fraudsters use it to cash out large amounts of money from stolen credit cards, they’re a lucrative target.
If AirBnB didn't do this, they would simply cease to exist at some point.
I could set up a fake AirBnB, steal credit cards, book my own fake AirBnB, and then run off with the cash. There's no equivalent workflow for hotels.
It's mostly a problem for "platform" style apps that have both ways to send money and ways to withdraw money. Turo and Ebay are probably better comparisons here, and may have similar issues.
Paypal is kind of universally reviled over their security measures.
VRBO doesn't do this, and has way harsher payout policies for new hosts than AirBnB. VRBO can do this because VRBO is not trying to attract new hosts (new to hosting, not new to VRBO) in the first place.
AirBnB can't do the VRBO thing and escrow payments to new hosts for 30 days, that would be super discouraging for newcomers trying to list their flat for the first time.
Unless you have proof they aren't selling that data, I'd assume (based on my experience at a major location-sharing company and a major credit-reports website) that they are absolutely selling that data.
Sounds more like wanting to seeing if people do chargebacks ?
I did say it's possible the government is pressuring them do it, but that's something I suspect Airbnb could fight if they were motivated to do so.
(Chargebacks do make it their problem though, so my premise was false anyway.)
Know Your Customer laws are the reason given by AirBnB themselves: https://www.airbnb.ie/help/article/3004
OP complained about "your bank account numbers, entire transaction history, financial data, and contact info." Normal KYC does not include all this.
Property owners get paid with bank transfers, so clawing back the money from fraudsters is essentially impossible.