被指房源非法 Airbnb在纽约遭遇监管困境
日期:2014-10-21 14:31

(单词翻译:单击)

NEW YORK — Airbnb, the pioneering home rental service, presents itself as useful and virtuous, but the reality is far less benign, according to a report that Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, released on Thursday.
纽约——家庭房屋出租服务先驱者Airbnb给自己打造了一个既有用又善良的形象,但从纽约检察长埃里克·T·施耐德曼(Eric T. Schneiderman)本周四发布的一份报告来看,实际情况远远谈不上良好宜人。

被指房源非法 Airbnb在纽约遭遇监管困境

The report will say nearly three-quarters of all Airbnb rentals in the city are illegal, violating zoning or other laws. Commercial operators, not hard-luck residents, supply more than a third of the units and generate more than a third of the revenue. At least a handful of landlords are running what amount to illegal hostels.
该报告将称,纽约市四分之三的Airbnb出租屋都是非法的,违反了行政区划法规或其他法律。商业经营者,而不是背运的居民,提供了逾三分之一的出租屋,获取了逾三分之一的收入。至少还有少量屋主在做相当于开非法旅馆的事情。
Property owners on Airbnb are indeed making money, but it is not being spread around. Most rentals are in three high-profile Manhattan neighborhoods. Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island barely figure.
Airbnb上的屋主确实在赚钱,但范围有限。大多数出租屋都位于三个知名的曼哈顿居住区。而皇后区、布朗克斯区和史坦顿岛的出租屋则很少。
Airbnb declined to aggressively dispute the numbers in the report, which draws on four years of data it provided to the attorney general after a court fight.
该报告使用了四年的数据,它们是Airbnb在经过一场法庭纷争之后,提交给检察长的。Airbnb没有对这份报告中的数字进行激烈争辩。
“We need to move forward,” an Airbnb spokesman, Nick Papas, said. “We need to work together on some sensible rules that stop bad actors and protect regular people who simply want to share the home in which they live.”
“我们需要前进,”Airbnb的发言人尼克·帕帕斯(Nick Papas)说。“我们需要合作拟定一些合理规则,以便阻止不良行为,保护那些只想出租自住居所的普通人。”
Airbnb, which is most likely contemplating a public offering in the next few years, seemed eager to avoid another fight. Its latest round of fund-raising put its valuation at $10 billion.
Airbnb很可能正在考虑在未来的几年里开始公开募股,因此似乎力图避免另一次争端。它在最新一轮融资中的估值为100亿美元(约合人民币610亿元)。
The housing broker and its imitators, like the taxi service Uber and its clones, have been prompting upheaval just about everywhere they go.
这个房屋经纪服务以及模仿它的服务,比如租车服务Uber和跟风者,在它所到的几乎所有地方都掀起了波澜。
Admirers say these stars of the so-called sharing economy are breaking up monopolies that have grown greedy and lazy. They are empowering individuals. Critics say that the start-ups are unsavory efforts to avoid regulation and taxes, and that the very term “sharing economy” is ridiculous.
支持者称,这些参与“分享型经济”(sharing economy)的明星公司,打破了已经变得贪婪和懒惰的垄断服务。它们正在赋权于个人。批评者称,这些初创公司令人讨厌,它们逃避监管和税收,而且“分享型经济”这个词本来就很荒谬。
In some contentious spots, like San Francisco, where the local government endorsed a plan last week to essentially legalize Airbnb, a resolution may be in sight. But in New York, where real estate is often viewed as a blood sport, the battle is only deepening.
一些存在争议的地区,可能不久就会做出相关决议,比如在旧金山,政府上周批准了一项计划,基本上是将Airbnb合法化。但在纽约,房地产通常是一个斗争相当残酷的领域,这种纷争只会愈演愈烈。
Mr. Schneiderman and city regulators will also announce Thursday a joint enforcement initiative to shut down illegal hotels. Various regulators will investigate violations of building and safety codes and tax regulations.
本周四,施奈德曼和城市监管部门还宣布开展联合执法行动,查封非法旅馆。各监管机构将对违反建筑安全和税收法规的情况进行调查。
“Anyone operating an illegal hotel should be on notice that the state and city will take aggressive enforcement actions in this area,” said Mr. Schneiderman. “A slick advertising campaign doesn’t change the fact that this is illegal activity.”
“在此通知所有非法旅馆经营者,纽约州和纽约市将在这方面采取积极主动的执法行动,”施奈德曼说。“诱人的广告宣传不能改变其违法的事实。”
He was careful, however, to speak of “illegal hotels” rather than “illegal rentals.” Airbnb is already too popular to dislodge completely, no matter what the housing laws say. It also delights travelers, who get a cheaper and usually more interesting place to stay.
但是,他的措辞很谨慎,说的是“非法旅馆”,而不是“非法出租”。Airbnb的人气已经非常高,无法全盘否定它,无论住房法律有怎样的规定。旅行者也很喜欢Airbnb,因为可以通过它找到更便宜、通常也更有趣的住宿。
“Most of our hosts are regular New Yorkers, and the overwhelming majority live outside of Manhattan,” Mr. Papas said.
“我们大部分出租者都是普通的纽约人,绝大多数都不住在曼哈顿,”帕帕斯说。
As for the 72 percent of listings that Mr. Schneiderman said were illegal, Mr. Papas said it was hard to tell what was going on.
至于施奈德曼说有72%的房源是是非法的,帕帕斯回应说,具体情况很难讲。
“Every single home, apartment, co-op and living space in New York is subject to a myriad of rules, so it’s impossible to make this kind of blanket statement,” the spokesman said. “That kind of uncertainty and lack of clarity is exactly why we’re advocating for clear, fair rules for home sharing.”
“在纽约,每一处家宅、公寓、共管公寓和住所,都有无数规则来约束,所以采用这种一刀切的说法是不可能的,”发言人说。“这种不确定性和不清晰性,也正是我们在家庭房屋共享上倡导明确、公平规则的原因。”
The report, Airbnb in the City, draws on anonymized data on 497,322 private stays in 35,354 unique places that were for less than 30 days and did not involve a shared room.
该报告名为《纽约市Airbnb状况》(Airbnb in the City),它使用的匿名数据包含30天内35354个不同地方的497322次私人住宿,不涉及共享一个房间的情况。
The report said the service was dominated by large-scale operators, finding that 6 percent of the hosts made 37 percent of the revenue — or $168 million. The number of units they administered ranged from three to 272. The individual with those 272 units charged an average of $358.19 a night, yielding $6.8 million, the report says.
该报告称这些服务是由大型运营者主导的,因为6%的出租者获得了37%的收入——约1.68亿美元。该报告说,他们管理的住宿单元数目介于3至272个之间。拥有272个住宿单元的那个人,收取的价格平均为358.19美元一晚,总共收入为680万美元。
Some of these operators may be gone already. In April, in the midst of Airbnb’s negotiations with Mr. Schneiderman over turning over its data, the company said it was expelling hosts with 2,000 listings in New York because they “weren’t providing a quality, local experience to guests.”
有些运营者可能已经消失了。今年4月,在Airbnb与施奈德曼协商提交数据的过程中,该公司说,它封杀了在纽约登记2000个房源的屋主,因为他们“没有为客人提供优质的本地住宿体验”。
A Quinnipiac poll last month revealed sharp divisions among New Yorkers about companies like Airbnb. Asked whether city residents should be able to rent rooms to strangers like a hotel, 56 percent of the respondents said yes and 36 percent said no.
昆尼皮亚克大学(Quinnipiac University)上月进行的民意调查显示,对于Airbnb这样的公司,纽约人的看法分歧严重。当被问及城市居民是否应该有权像宾馆一样,向陌生人出租房间时,56%的受访者说应该,36%的人说不应该。
“Airbnb allows longtime residents to stay in their homes by earning just a little extra money to help make ends meet,” the company states in its promotions. It stresses that only 18 percent of its New York rentals are “where the hotels are,” which it defines as Midtown. The other 82 percent are “outside of traditional tourist zones.”
“Airbnb可以帮助长期居民赚点额外收入,帮补家用,保住房子,”该公司在其促销宣传中称。它强调说,在纽约的Airbnb出租屋中,只有18%位于“酒店所在地”,Airbnb把这种地区定义为市中心。其他的82%都“不在传统旅游区内”。
But the attorney general’s report says rentals in three areas in Manhattan — Lower East Side/Chinatown, Chelsea/Hell’s Kitchen and Greenwich Village/SoHo — accounted for 40 percent of private stay revenue, or $187 million.
但检察长的报告显示,曼哈顿的三个地方——下东城/华埠,切尔西/地狱厨房,以及格林威治村/苏荷区——的出租屋,占私人住宿收入的40%,合1.87亿美元。
Reservations in Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx accounted for only 3 percent, or $12 million.
在皇后区、史泰登岛和布朗克斯的订房仅占3%,合1200万美元。
The report also indicates that an increasing number of units were being rented out on a more or less permanent basis. While still small in absolute numbers — about 2,000 units are rented for six months of the year or more — affordable-housing advocates have warned that this trend could push up prices for long-term residents as units disappear from the housing stock.
该报告还指出,长租的住宿单元数目越来越多。虽然绝对数字还小——约2000个单元,在一年之中出租六个月或更多时间——经济适用住房的倡导者们警告说,这种趋势可能会推高长期居民的居住成本,因为这些住宿单元从住房供应总量中消失了。
A dozen buildings had 60 percent or more of their units used as rentals for at least half the year, “suggesting that the buildings were operating as de facto hotels,” the report says.
在十几栋建筑物中,有60%或更多单元被用于出租至少半年时间,“表明这些建筑物实际上在像酒店那样经营,”报告说。

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重点单词
  • permanentadj. 永久的,持久的 n. 烫发
  • sensibleadj. 可察觉的,意识到的,实用的 n. 可感知物
  • figuren. 图形,数字,形状; 人物,外形,体型 v. 演算,
  • uniqueadj. 独一无二的,独特的,稀罕的
  • essentiallyadv. 本质上,本来
  • campaignn. 运动,活动,战役,竞选运动 v. 从事运动,参加竞
  • illegaladj. 不合法的,非法的 n. 非法移民
  • spreadv. 伸展,展开,传播,散布,铺开,涂撒 n. 伸展,传
  • attorneyn. (辩护)律师
  • qualityn. 品质,特质,才能 adj. 高品质的