Peer-to-peer booking platforms allow guests to book a room or entire residence from a private, residential property owner. Though they’ve grown in prominence in recent years, such platforms still occupy an insignificant share of the total demand pie.

　　GLOBAL REPORT—While searching for a room for last year’s Lodging Conference in Phoenix, Vikram Singh found that nearby hotels were either fully booked or well above his price range. So he turned to an innovative alternative: Airbnb.

　　The booking site, which allows consumers to book residential spaces or units from willing private owners, netted Singh a penthouse with city views for only $200 a night.

　　The CEO of online sales and marketing consultancy Envision has since used the service to book everything from vacation getaways to upcoming conferences—and he’s not alone.

　　Platforms such as Airbnb, Onefinestay and 9flats are springing up with increased regularity, putting would-be bookers directly in touch with the intrepid property owners—and leaving hoteliers watching from the sidelines.

　　But does the new peer-to-peer landscape truly impact or count as a threat against hotel demand? Sources said no.

　　“Does that show up on the hotel guy’s radar at all? I don’t think so,” said Mark Eble, VP of PKF Consulting’s Midwest practice.

　　Companies such as Airbnb might find their way into headlines for their innovative booking platforms or questions of legality, but they still occupy only a fraction of total hotel supply, he said.

　　Airbnb finished 2012 with more than 300,000 individual listings across the globe, for instance. There are nearly four times as many hotel rooms in the South Atlantic region of the United States alone.

　　“There may be some incremental leakages, but we don’t see it as being anything really substantial,” said Douglas Quinby, who analyzes such peer-to-peer networks as principal analyst of PhoCusWright.

　　Even Singh downplayed the overall impact on demand. “One on one, it’s not completely ripping away market share,” he said.

　　An executive from Airbnb was not made available for comment.

　　Backpackers to businesspeople

　　Peer-to-peer booking sites attract a certain type of traveler—typically those who are a bit more adventurous and don’t demand certain standards and amenities, Eble said.

　　“A business traveler would never consider that,” he said. “You just don’t know what you’re going to get. There’s probably not going to be a nice little tube of shampoo in the bathroom. Housekeeping can be dicey …

　　“The level of service that you find at a hotel, even a modest hotel, doesn’t exist in those things, and businesspeople will avoid that like the plague,” Eble said.

　　However, residential listings can offer certain amenities a traveler won’t find at all hotels, Quinby said.