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No, after the booking is completed, still well before keys are handed over, personal contact information is made available. Sure, it's inconvenient if you have to turn someone down after researching them but after they paid, but that's hardly the issue here.

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If effective protective measures can only be taken after the sale has been made / contract signed / whatever, then the marketplace really isn't providing "trust, transparency, and authenticity". In fact, it is actively working to prevent them.

But the author of the article makes a point to say this was too late a point in time, as they were already out of town.

He also writes:

If anything, I blame myself. In retrospect, and as I read through my initial email exchanges with Dj, I recognize now that something was “off” in his manner of communication, that I trusted too easily, and probably did not do my due diligence to properly protect myself and my home.

There is nothing in the article that indicates that the situation would have turned out any different if he had access to "Dj"s contact information earlier.

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