被指房源非法 Airbnb在紐約遭遇監管困境

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.

紐約——家庭房屋出租服務先驅者Airbnb給自己打造了一個既有用又善良的形象，但從紐約檢察長埃裏克·T·施耐德曼(Eric T. Schneiderman)本週四發佈的一份報告來看，實際情況遠遠談不上良好宜人。

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.

該報告將稱，紐約市四分之三的Airbnb出租屋都是非法的，違反了行政區劃法規或其他法律。商業經營者，而不是背運的居民，提供了逾三分之一的出租屋，獲取了逾三分之一的收入。至少還有少量屋主在做相當於開非法旅館的事情。

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上的屋主確實在賺錢，但範圍有限。大多數出租屋都位於三個知名的曼哈頓居住區。而皇后區、布朗克斯區和史坦頓島的出租屋則很少。

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.

該報告使用了四年的數據，它們是Airbnb在經過一場法庭紛爭之後，提交給檢察長的。Airbnb沒有對這份報告中的數字進行激烈爭辯。

“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.”

“我們需要前進，”Airbnb的發言人尼克·帕帕斯(Nick Papas)說。“我們需要合作擬定一些合理規則，以便阻止不良行爲，保護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很可能正在考慮在未來的幾年裏開始公開募股，因此似乎力圖避免另一次爭端。它在最新一輪融資中的估值爲100億美元（約合人民幣610億元）。

The housing broker and its imitators, like the taxi service Uber and its clones, have been prompting upheaval just about everywhere they go.

這個房屋經紀服務以及模仿它的服務，比如租車服務Uber和跟風者，在它所到的幾乎所有地方都掀起了波瀾。

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.

支持者稱，這些參與“分享型經濟”(sharing economy)的明星公司，打破了已經變得貪婪和懶惰的壟斷服務。它們正在賦權於個人。批評者稱，這些初創公司令人討厭，它們逃避監管和稅收，而且“分享型經濟”這個詞本來就很荒謬。

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.

一些存在爭議的地區，可能不久就會做出相關決議，比如在舊金山，政府上週批准了一項計劃，基本上是將Airbnb合法化。但在紐約，房地產通常是一個鬥爭相當殘酷的領域，這種紛爭只會愈演愈烈。

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.

本週四，施奈德曼和城市監管部門還宣佈開展聯合執法行動，查封非法旅館。各監管機構將對違反建築安全和稅收法規的情況進行調查。

“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館經營者，紐約州和紐約市將在這方面採取積極主動的執法行動，”施奈德曼說。“誘人的廣告宣傳不能改變其違法的事實。”

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，他的措辭很謹慎，說的是“非法旅館”，而不是“非法出租”。Airbnb的人氣已經非常高，無法全盤否定它，無論住房法律有怎樣的規定。旅行者也很喜歡Airbnb，因爲可以通過它找到更便宜、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.

“我們大部分出租者都是普通的紐約人，絕大多數都不住在曼哈頓，”帕帕斯說。

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.

至於施奈德曼說有72%的房源是是非法的，帕帕斯迴應說，具體情況很難講。

“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.”

“在紐約，每一處家宅、公寓、共管公寓和住所，都有無數規則來約束，所以採用這種一刀切的說法是不可能的，”發言人說。“這種不確定性和不清晰性，也正是我們在家庭房屋共享上倡導明確、公平規則的原因。”

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.

該報告名爲《紐約市Airbnb狀況》(Airbnb in the City)，它使用的匿名數據包含30天內35354個不同地方的497322次私人住宿，不涉及共享一個房間的情況。

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.

該報告稱這些服務是由大型運營者主導的，因爲6%的出租者獲得了37%的收入——約1.68億美元。該報告說，他們管理的住宿單元數目介於3至272個之間。擁有272個住宿單元的那個人，收取的價格平均爲358.19美元一晚，總共收入爲680萬美元。

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.”

有些運營者可能已經消失了。今年4月，在Airbnb與施奈德曼協商提交數據的過程中，該公司說，它封殺了在紐約登記2000個房源的屋主，因爲他們“沒有爲客人提供優質的本地住宿體驗”。

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.

昆尼皮亞克大學(Quinnipiac University)上月進行的民意調查顯示，對於Airbnb這樣的公司，紐約人的看法分歧嚴重。當被問及城市居民是否應該有權像賓館一樣，向陌生人出租房間時，56%的受訪者說應該，36%的人說不應該。

“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可以幫助長期居民賺點額外收入，幫補家用，保住房子，”該公司在其促銷宣傳中稱。它強調說，在紐約的Airbnb出租屋中，只有18%位於“酒店所在地”，Airbnb把這種地區定義爲市中心。其他的82%都“不在傳統旅遊區內”。

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.

但檢察長的報告顯示，曼哈頓的三個地方——下東城/華埠，切爾西/地獄廚房，以及格林威治村/蘇荷區——的出租屋，佔私人住宿收入的40%，合1.87億美元。

Reservations in Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx accounted for only 3 percent, or $12 million.

在皇后區、史泰登島和布朗克斯的訂房僅佔3%，合1200萬美元。

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.

該報告還指出，長租的住宿單元數目越來越多。雖然絕對數字還小——約2000個單元，在一年之中出租六個月或更多時間——經濟適用住房的倡導者們警告說，這種趨勢可能會推高長期居民的居住成本，因爲這些住宿單元從住房供應總量中消失了。

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.

在十幾棟建築物中，有60%或更多單元被用於出租至少半年時間，“表明這些建築物實際上在像酒店那樣經營，”報告說。