Jack Solomon, a 74-year-old industrial chemist from Westchester, New York, had been waiting for the internet home-sharing revolution for years. Looking for a home to retire to in 2005, he and his wife ended up with a house in East Hampton and — as you do — a neighbouring island that sleeps 36.

来自美国纽约州威斯彻斯特县(Westchester, New York)的74岁工业化学家杰克所罗门(Jack Solomon)多年来一直在苦等互联网私宅共享革命浪潮的到来。2005年他与妻子四处找寻退休后的住所，最终在东汉普顿(East Hampton)“安营扎寨”，这座邻近东汉普顿的小岛上共住有36人。

He toiled unsuccessfully on craigslist, the local classifieds service, trying to eke out some income from the island when not in use for stays with family and friends. When it came, the new wave of home sharing websites was a godsend; today he has a steady stream of bookings for the island courtesy of Airbnb, TripAdvisor and VRBO (a popular US rental site).

他曾在当地分类广告网站Craigslist上打广告，希望房子空置时（自己家人与朋友不在此居住时）能对外出租，但却以失败告终。当这一天终于成为现实时，不断涌现的私宅分享网站如同及时雨。如今拜Airbnb 、TripAdvisor以及美国知名租赁网站VRBO所赐，预订他小岛住所的人络绎不绝。

Airbnb reports a boom in short-term home lets by the super-rich. In June, the number of one-bed listings charging more than 1,000 per night was nearly three times what it had been a year before. Asia is leading the charge: high-end apartments — those with pools and gyms — grew quickest in Tokyo (up 78 per cent) and Hong Kong (up 70 per cent). Over the same 12-month period, London listings grew by half and those in Paris a third.

Airbnb报告称：富豪临时出租私宅者大幅飚升。今年6月，上网招租的单张床位数（每晚租金超过1000英镑）同比增长了近3倍。亚洲租金首屈一指独领风骚：带泳池与健身房的高档住宅的租金在东京与香港同比增幅最大，分别达78%与70%。过去一年，伦敦待租房屋的租金同比增长了50%，巴黎则同比增长了三分之一。

Premium home rental sites are booming. Luxury Retreats, which claims to turn away 95 per cent of those who offer their (mainly) holiday homes, now has 2,800 properties, largely in the US and the Caribbean, with nightly rates ranging from $1,000 to $124,000, for the plushest private island. Onefinestay has been listing plush pads since 2010 in sought-after city locations and now has 2,000 homes across London, New York, Paris and LA, with a combined value of 6bn. Villas.com, the vacation rental site operated by booking.com, which includes plenty of plush pads, boasts 308,000 vacation homes.

高档住宅租赁网站也快速涌现。Luxury Retreats声称把95%有意出租者的度假屋者拒之门外，如今旗下拥有2800套房源（多数位于美国与加勒比海的最为奢华的私人海岛），每晚租金从1000美元至12.4万美元不等。2010年以来，Onefinestay一直招租城市黄金地段的豪华住所，如今在伦敦、纽约、巴黎以及洛杉矶等地拥有的房源多达2000套，总价值超过60亿英镑。由booking.com负责经营的休假房屋租赁网站Villas.com名下把大量豪宅出租，自诩名下度假房多达30.8万套。

Second-home owners are getting younger, meaning more look to the internet for smart rental solutions when they are not using their homes themselves. The average age of second-home buyers in the US dropped from 52 to 43 in the 10 years to 2013, according to the US National Association of Realtors.

二手房主越趋年轻化，他们更希望房屋空置时能通过租赁网出租。据全美房地产经纪人协会(US National Association of Realtors)统计：过去10年（截止2013年），美国二手房主的平均年龄从52岁降到了43岁。

Increasingly, people are renting their main homes, too. “Where the super-rich have listed secondary residences for some time, now they’re starting to offer their main homes while staying in other properties or holidaying,” says Olivier Gremillon, who runs Airbnb’s European business.

不仅如此，出租主宅者也越来越多。“富豪过去上网出租自己的次要住宅，如今当自己住到别处或是外出休假时，则开始把主宅临时出租。”Airbnb欧洲区负责人奥利维耶格雷米翁(Olivier Gremillon)说。

Online home rental sites typically feature interactive calendars allowing owners to switch availability on or off at a moment’s notice, dodging the advance commitment typically required by property rental firms. As importantly, messaging apps and sophisticated review systems provide homeowners with the information they need to vet potential guests.

家租网通常以交互式日历招揽客户：允许房主可即刻告知房屋能否出租，从而规避了房屋租赁公司通常要求的提前预约规定。同样重要的是：短信通知程序与先进的复查系统可给房主提供相关信息，用以审核有意承租者。

Two years ago, Francesca Diana, an Italian jewellery designer who runs her global business from Rio, bought a private island on a rural nature reserve about an hour and half’s drive from her home. It has become a precious retreat: “I’d never rent it to someone unknown or give up the control over who could stay there,” she says.

2年前，在巴西里约经营全球业务的意大利首饰设计师弗朗西斯卡戴安娜(Francesca Diana)购买了一座私人小岛，它位于当地自然保护区内，距离自家约1.5小时车程。“我永远也不会把它转租给陌生人、或是把它交给想长住的人。”她说。

Through Airbnb, she corresponds with prospective guests to discover their interests and expectations, then reads reviews from previous hosts to check their form. “I need to know they will respect the national park and aren’t here to use the island to party on,” she says. This choosiness, and the fact that she will only take guests for a week or more, cuts down her rental periods. But like many of today’s premium home-sharers, her motivation is social as well as financial.

借助Airbnb，她与有意承租者取得联系，了解对方的兴趣爱好及期望值，再通过浏览以往招租房主的评价掌握其实际为人。“我得弄清楚对方是否尊重国家公园的相关规定，租住小岛是不是用于操办聚会。”她说。她的挑剔、再加上其容许的出租期只有一周左右，从而减少了她的总租赁时间。但与当今诸多豪宅共享者一样，她的动机是社会与经济目的兼而有之。

Laurent also likes the company. A scion of a large French family — he won’t give his surname — he lets his sumptuous 4,300 sq ft Louis XVI-period spare apartment in Paris. Extra income for maintenance is handy, he says, but his guests, and their generous reviews, are what he gets excited about. He’ll give tours of the house, explaining which family castle features in this painting, which French king once sat in that armchair and when that celebrity came to stay. For between 650 and 1,000 per night, depending on the season, he’ll throw in a few of his own staff of “cleaners, driver, guardian and cooks”.

不愿透露自己姓氏的法国某望族传人洛朗(Laurent)也喜欢与人为伴，他对外招租的是自家位于巴黎、始建于路易十六时期(Louis XVI)、面积达4300平方英尺的空置豪宅。这些贴补维修费的额外收入唾手可得，他说，入住客户以及对方的溢美之词同样让他很是受用。他通常会带客人走马观花一番，向对方讲述家族藏画中画的是哪座家族城堡、自家扶椅坐过哪位法王陛下、以及哪位名流曾下榻此处。每晚租金介于650-1000英镑之间，具体数额视季节而定，他还会免费安排自己的“清洁工、司机、保安以及厨师”来此服务。

Visitors during Paris Fashion Week can hobnob with models and celebs at one of his exclusive parties. Younger members of the home-sharing revolution pick their guests with more specific aims in mind. Ben James, who is 26 and “predominantly single”, rents out one or both rooms in his Mayfair penthouse, which includes a huge roof terrace. He’d probably pass on a request from a family with young children, he says, “but two young ladies over in London for a party fit more with my lifestyle”. Family in the area means that he can move out briefly if a long booking doesn’t quite sync with his own travel plans; at 700 per night, a three-week stay is, he points out, “a decent chunk of change”.

巴黎时装周期间，游客可在洛朗组织的高档聚会上与参会的名模、名流进行亲密互动。私宅共享浪潮中的年轻一代挑选租客时目的性更为具体。26岁的本礠姆斯(Ben James)崇尚独身，他把自己伦敦梅费尔区(Mayfair)顶层公寓（带有面积很大的露台）的一两个房间对外招租。他通常愿意租给带有小孩的家庭租住，他说，“但是，两位住在伦敦的年轻姑娘若是合伙租住，则更符合我的生活方式”。他自己的家庭就在附近，如果长期出租与自己的出游计划相冲突，他可以短时搬出去住；他说：每晚700英镑的租金，若是租上三周，自己就有了“一大笔零花钱”。

James was probably never shy, but others have taken a while to get comfy with the concept of house sharing.

詹姆斯也许无所顾忌，但有些人真正接受私宅共享理念则需假以时日。

Prime Airbnb listings surged last year when the firm hiked its insurance policy from 50,000 — about enough to cover a vase in some London homes — to 1m. Owners can add their own deposit requirements and checking procedures. In 10 years Laurent has lost only a Bose sound system and a few bottles of champagne from the cellar.

去年，当Airbnb把保险赔偿费从5万英镑（刚够赔偿伦敦某些豪宅中的一只花瓶）猛增至100万英镑后，到Airbnb网招租的豪宅数大幅飚升。户主还可以要求添加定金要求以及增加核对程序。10年来，洛朗只丢过一套Bose音响系统以及几瓶窑藏香槟。

Many rich users once avoided posting photos on their Airbnb profiles for fear of friends thinking they were hard up, says Gremillon. All that has changed: “now it’s cool to be part of the sharing economy; it’s something for people to talk about over dinner parties.” Some have been led by tech savvy kids, who grew up holidaying on strangers’ sofas via couchsurfing.com, and now rent or sublet their homes on even the shortest trips. Others have been lured by sites that take the hassle out of the rental process in exchange for keeping a share — typically up to half — of what guests are charged. At Onefinestay and LuxuryRetreats, after a rental price is agreed all the owner must do is decide whether to accept or reject subsequent bookings. Onefinestay ships in linen, towels and toiletries, and uses aircraft-style tamper tape seals to signal to guests which rooms or draws are off limits.

很多有钱的房主曾竭力避免把豪宅照片上传至Airbnb网页，因为担心亲朋好友会误以为自己手头拮据，格雷米翁说。但此一时、彼一时也：“如今成为共享经济的一分子很潮很酷；它俨然成了各种饭局的谈资。”如今的技术男成了引领潮流者，他们从小到大随家人度假时，每次都睡在陌生人家（通过couchsurfing.com网承租）的沙发床。如今他们即便短途出游，往往把自家房子出租或转租于他人。其他人则被许诺简化招租程序的网站吸引，对方开出的条件是租金分成（通常达一半）。在Onefinestay及LuxuryRetreats，租金谈妥后，房主只需决定是否接受随后的房屋招租。Onefinestay备好床单、毛巾以及化妆品、并使用飞机上的密件启封方式向客人标示哪些房间与区域禁止进入。

A few users with posh pads may not be super-rich. Lower-income European aristocrats are increasingly employing Airbnb to rent outbuildings on their estates, helping to fix leaking roofs, says Gremillon.

有些豪宅户主可能并非富豪。越来越多的低收入欧洲旧贵族借助Airbnb网把自家豪宅的附属房屋对外出租，以赚取屋顶渗漏维修费用，格雷米翁说。

Others are cash-strapped enthusiasts. Alain Etienne Marcel did a deal with the French town of St Malo, where he lives, to restore a 17th-century fort off the coast in return for a 99-year lease on the property. When he had returned some of the rooms to their original condition, he started to take bookings through Airbnb for up to ㄠ,600 per night. The revenue funds the rest of the work and helps pay for public visits to the fort, his original motivation for the project.

其它热衷对外招租的豪宅则是因为资金短缺。阿兰縠节覄氠庚尔(Alain Etienne Marcel)与法国小镇圣马洛（St Malo，他如今居住于此）签订协议，他帮助修复一座17世纪的海滨要塞，条件是自己获得要塞99年的租用期。他把某些房间原样修复后，就开始通过Airbnb网接受客户预订，每晚租金高达1600欧元。收入用于未竟的修复工程以及贴补公众参观的费用（这是他最初的动因）。

The new home-sharing economy also offers a radical solution to the fraught uncertainties of relocation.

全新的共享经济还给充满变数的异地安家提供了根本出路。

When tech entrepreneurs Leila Zegna and her husband were planning a move from San Francisco to London last autumn, they compiled a shortlist of six central London neighbourhoods. Rather than gamble with a year-long lease in an area they might not like, they used Onefinestay to find three-week home rentals in each of the six areas. The company provided a list of suitable homes and arranged each stay; the couple arrived to a welcome from an agent and a mobile phone preloaded with the owner’s local tips, from restaurants to dry cleaners. Zegna estimates that the rental cost was just 15 per cent more than that of a long-term let. “It was a great adventure: we were incredibly mobile, living out of a suitcase and exploring each neighbourhood every night after work and at weekends,” she says, adding that global firms should follow her lead to make foreign postings more appealing.

去年秋天，当科技创业者莱拉瀠尼亚(Leila Zegna)伉俪计划从旧金山搬至伦敦时，他们最终圈定了伦敦市中心的6处住宅区。他们没有选择在一个小区长租一年（他俩不太喜欢），转而通过Onefinestay网在每个小区各租住三周时间。网络租赁公司提供了几家候选家庭，并妥善安排好了一切入住事宜；夫妻俩每到一处，就有中介公司迎接他们，手机中预装了房主提供的本地服务信息（从餐馆到干洗店）。杰尼亚估计租金只比长期租住多出15%。“这是妙不可言的经历：我们来去自如，只需拿个手提箱，每晚下班后以及周末，我们就会在每个小区寻芳探幽一番。”她说，并补充说跨国公司应该积极效仿其做法，如此一来员工驻外肯定争先恐后。

Growth in demand for prime home rentals has been driven by the changing tastes of super-rich holidaymakers. Since the financial crisis, a shift from ostentatious consumption to sustainable localism — eccentric cafés and hidden farmers’ markets — has seen affluent travellers swap design hotels for homestays, says Mindy Ewing of Virtuoso, a premium travel agent that sources many of their properties through high-end sharing sites.

高端住宅租赁需求增长的动因是外出度假的富豪品味发生了变化。自金融危机以来，从炫富性消费到对风土习俗（怪异的咖啡屋与出世农民的集市）持久偏爱的转变，让不差钱的游客弃住豪华酒店、转而选择农家旅舍，来自高端旅行社Virtuoso的明迪尤因(Mindy Ewing)说，Virtuoso通过豪宅分享网站淘选了许多适合招租的房屋。

Frequent business travellers are also a growing market. When 49-year-old Paul Watts was working in San Francisco for a British software firm, he chose home rentals for the half dozen annual trips he made back to London, often with his wife. Now living in London again, they use the site for trips to the Paris office. “It enables us to feel like we have a work-home balance when I’m working abroad; it has been a life-changer,” he says.

经常出差者的市场需求也是水涨船高。49岁的保罗瓦茨(Paul Watts)曾在旧金山为一家英国软件公司上班，每年回英国几次，都是与妻子租房住。如今返回伦敦居住后，他俩到巴黎分公司出差时，常常通过租房网站租房住。“我在国外出差时，租房住可以让我们感觉工作与居家两不误；它一直是改变生活的大功臣。”他这样说道。

The same appetite for local immersion has driven growth in internet-enabled home swaps. These include HomeExchange.com, or the smaller, plusher, 3rdhome.com, which is a sort of a car club for holiday homes. Once accepted, members pledge their homes, specifying the dates they are willing to let them out; in return they get credits equivalent to the swankiness of their home and the desirability of the time slots they are offering. These they can spend by booking other homes.

游客希望能深度入乡随俗，导致网上私宅互换居住行为不断增多。这其中就包括了HomeExchange.com网以及规模更小、也更为奢华的3rdhome.com等网站，后者属于专为度假家庭服务、类似汽车俱乐部的网站。一旦接受协议，签约成员必须严守承诺，明确自家愿意出租的时段；作为回报，他们就获得与自家奢华程度以及可供出租时段相对应的信用分，自己预租别人家的房子时可当现金使用。

The benefits of home swapping are financial — there’s no income from your guests, so no tax to pay — and fantastical — a steady supply of offers from homeowners in Brazil and the Bahamas to swap with your Kensington duplex will feed daydreams to brighten up the rainiest London workday.

私宅互换既能带来经济好处（入住客人并不支付房费，因此无须额外付税），也能让美梦成真——巴西与巴哈马的房主源源不断要求与诸位位于伦敦肯辛顿(Kensington)的复式住宅互换居住，此举能让上班的伦敦人浮想联翩，一扫城市阴雨绵绵的天气。

As well as the boom in top-end rentals, sites to cater for a range of specialist owners are springing up thick and fast. In the land of the free and home share of the brave, Ryan Galiotto co-founded Kinkbnb.com when one of his friends was barred from a major US home rental site for including pictures of her fully equipped sex dungeon. Back in East Hampton, Solomon may be leading fellow baby boomers into a new dawn of technology-enabled home rental, but that is one site that he won’t be using to list his island.

除了豪宅招租激增外，专为各色专用房主服务的网站也如雨后春笋般涌现。在崇尚自由、私宅共享的英国，瑞恩加廖托(Ryan Galiotto)一位好友的招租私宅因包含“设施一应俱全”的性地牢照片而被美国某知名家租网站拒之门外，于是愤而与人合办了Kinkbnb.com网站。再次说说东汉普顿，所罗门也许正把同年龄段的婴儿潮一代人(baby boomer)带入科技为依托的家租新时代，但他不会在上述网站上招租自家的小岛豪宅。