For years, life went something like this: We’d grow up in one place, head off to college, then find a city to live in for a few years at time to pursue a job or higher education. The end goal was to find somewhere to settle down for the long haul, buy a house, start a family, and begin the whole cycle all over again.
多年来的生活方式是这样的：我们在一个地方长大，外出上大学，然后在一个城市住上几年找工作或者深造。我们最终会找地方长期定居，买房子安家，生活如此循环往复。

But a new model for living is emerging: Some people are increasingly opting to move from city to city throughout their entire lives, sometimes as frequently as every month.
但现在有一种新兴的生活模式：越来越多的人一辈子都在城市间转移，有时甚至每月换个地方。

Just ask Alex Chatzielefteriou, who has had a front-row seat watching this evolution unfold.
问问Alex Chatzielefteriou就知道了，他就走在这个潮流的前沿。

Six years ago, he launched a startup called Blueground that rents out beautifully designed, fully furnished apartments for a month at a time, at rates that are cheaper than hotels.
六年前，他创办了一家名为Blueground的公司，出租装修精美、家具齐全的公寓，一次只租一个月，租金比旅馆低。

Today, the company has 3,000 properties in six U.S. cities, along with Dubai, Istanbul, London, Paris, and Chatzielefteriou’s native Athens, and a staff of 400.
这家公司现有员工400人，拥有3,000处房产，分布在美国六座城市、迪拜、伊斯坦布尔、伦敦、巴黎和Chatzielefteriou的家乡雅典。

The company just landed $50 million in Series B funding, bringing its total investment to $78 million, to continue its rapid expansion. It hopes to have 50,000 properties in 50 cities over the next three years, and the goal is to make each one feel unique and cosy, rather than standardized, like what you might find in a traditional hotel.
该公司刚刚获得5000万美元的B轮融资，总投资达到7800万美元，用于快速扩展业务。这家公司希望在未来三年内在50座城市房产达到50,000处，要使每一户都独特而舒适，而不仅仅是达到传统酒店的标准水平。

Chatzielefteriou first came up with the idea for Blueground while he was working as a management consultant for McKinsey. “The accommodation of choice for consultants is the hotel,” he says. “I had to spend five years in a hotel room, living in 12 different cities. I loved seeing the world, but I didn’t love feeling like I didn’t have a home.”
Chatzielefteriou最初是在麦肯锡公司做管理咨询师时有了开办Blueground公司的想法。他说：“咨询师只能选择住酒店，5年里我一直住酒店房间，辗转12个城市。我喜欢周游世界，但不喜欢没有家的感觉。”

As he spoke to his friends and coworkers, he realized that many people were frustrated with this itinerant lifestyle that meant living out of a suitcase in the same few nondescript hotel chains that all began to blend together.
他对朋友和同事说，他发现很多人都不喜欢居无定所，那样他们只能把生活用品都放在行李箱里，住在为数不多的普通连锁酒店里，而这些酒店也开始相互融合。

And what’s more, hotels aren’t a particularly cost-effective solution for companies either. In Chatzielefteriou’s case, McKinsey sometimes paid $10,000 or more for him to stay in a major city for a month, which was far more expensive than local rents.
而且对公司来说酒店也不是特别划算。以Chatzielefteriou为例，有时他住在大城市里，麦肯锡公司一个月至少要花掉10,000美元，比当地房租贵多了。

 

翻译：菲菲