68% of people who travel on Thanksgiving will stay with family or friends!
 

I am interested in surveying the people who read the Fodors message board. When you travel at Thanksgiving or Christmas, do you stay with relatives/friends or at a hotel?<BR><BR>I heard an incredible statistic on TV this morning. 68% of people who travel on Thanksgiving will stay at the home with family and friends. This is just amazing during a period of time that motel rates are so cheap.<BR><BR>I use to stay with family and friends during holidays but after countless sleepless nights trying to stay comfortable on the relatives cheap sleeper sofa, or floor, I got smart and started to stay at motels.<BR><BR>Visiting with relatives during Thanksgiving day is fine but sleeping on the floor for three nights during the long weekend????

Tom, you are making some assumptions:<BR><BR>1)Everybody hates sofabeds as much as you.<BR><BR>2) All sofabeds, couches, and futons are unbearably uncomfortable.<BR><BR>3) Things such as spare rooms, with actual comfortable beds, do not exist.<BR><BR>4) Everyone can afford the expense of a motel/hotel room.<BR><BR>Since all of your assumptions are wrong, the figure of 68% doesn't surprise me in the least.

Well, since Thanksgiving is at my house this year I'll be sleeping in my own bed! The farthest I'll have to travel for a good cup of tea is to my kitchen!<BR><BR>Happy turkey day!<BR><BR>Sheli

I agree staying with relatives can be a terrible experience! Though I suspect that there is alot of social pressure to stay on the hard lumpy mattress, instead of the nice bed at the Marriott. My family makes us feel guilty if we stay at a hotel. By the end of the holiday weekend we are nearly dead from lack of sleep and ready to disown the family.

I'm with Tom. It's good to visit with friends and relatives, but I gotta have my privacy too.

Typically, if we're going to visit a poor relative, we stay at a local hotel because they can't accommodate us well. <BR><BR>If we're going to stay with a rich relative, we stay at their house because they have good quality mattresses and separate guest rooms. <BR><BR>Everyone understands as long as you're upfront about it.

I think that some of us are really forgetting the whole reason why we have Thanksgiving. Remember to song -we gather together to ask for our blessings- Blessings for being with family. Tom-buy any chance are you a hotel manager? Most families can't wait to be together during the holiday season. I am sure if you are given a lumpy bed or a sofa couch, you can suck it up. That's is the reason why families get together. Give me waking up a my sisters house and smelling a Turkey cooking over making a cup of coffee in my hotel suite.

The only way I'd stay in a hotel would be if the house was already full with other relatives. If they had the room but asked me to stay in a hotel, I'd be insulted and stay home. If I insisted on staying in a hotel because "I need my privacy" I'd expect them to be insulted and not invite me again.<BR><BR>Sleeping on a lumpy bed is a small price to pay for being able to spend time with your family, like them or not.

Both my parents and my in-laws live in different states than my husband and me. If we are going for a quick visit for the weekend to my parents house, we stay with them in the spare bedroom. If we visit my parents for a holiday, we stay in a hotel. Usually their house is a madhouse during the holidays with my mom busy cooking, cleaning all the time, people dropping by all the time yada yada yada. By the end of an eveing everyone is pooped. Its nice to go back to the hotel and get a good nights sleep and not have to be awakened early the next morning. I think my parents feel like when we leave to go to the hotel they can finally relax and get some much needed peace and quiet as well, it works great. As for my in-laws, we NEVER stay with them. Yes, they have spare bedroom for us but my FIL is a heavy smoker and we jsut can't stand to be around that all the time. He is a wonderful person and we love the whole family, but I could never sleep in that house without practically choking to death.

We spend Thanksgiving close to home at my mother's house so we'll sleep in our own beds this weekend. But for Christmas we always stay with my in-laws and there's not a better hotel in the world than their house. The beds are wonderful. The food is absolutely delicious! And the warmth and good cheer of spending time with loved ones makes it one of my favorite places to stay in the world. In fact, I often tease them that they should open a b&b.

I always stay at my mothers'house in my old bedroom. It amazes me that even though I haven't lived there for 26 years, I always sleep like a rock there!My mother always looks forward to all of us being together. Since we live all over the country it doesn't happen very often.

My husband was transfered many yrs ago so our children and extended family do not live in the same state as we do. We travel every Thanksgiving and every Christmas to be with our children and grandchildren. WE have slept on many a floor with blow up mattress's, (that seem to loose their air in the middle of the night)couches, futon's and now that the kid's careers are advanced we have beds! The point is, it doesn't matter what I sleep on, it is a joy and a previledge to be included in their life. We are honored.

THese people who love sleeping on the floor and can't wait until they see their family cant be real. Everyone I talk to hates spending time with their family and do so out of obligation and the feeling that it is the only family they have.<BR><BR>I enjoy the end of the day when we can slip out to our comfortable hotel!

Fortunately for us, my folks have moved close enough so that we don't have to sleep over. There were days thoug when the sleeper sofa was the only choice. My parents then moved into a smaller place and we started to get a motel room. Better for everyone and we still enjoyed their company.<BR><BR>Now where is my map to Susan's inlaws.....

For Christmas dinner my mother-in-law is planning a Tuscan feast. Antipasti sent from DiBruno Bros. in Philly, priest's stranglers (on the cover of Saveur November), lasagna, sage roasted chicken, salad, cheese plate and tiramisu. My father-in-law will be seen heading down the hallway with his crowbar to pry open a case of delicious wine. We'll be in no condition to drive to a hotel afterward. Their guest rooms even have themes, the Cowboy room, the Hawaii room. Don't think I'm handing out directions either!

To Ted and the others: I can't say I "hate" my family, but we do have our share of disagreements. There was a time in my life when I said I 'hate' them, but as the years go by I've mellowed as I've seen other relatives I 'hate' pass on. Frankly, I miss some of them and wish they were still here so I could 'hate' them. Appreciate what you've got, because there WILL come a day they won't be there, even if it means sleeping on a lumpy bed. Those lumpy beds are what makes a lifetime of memories.

Ted - It's not that I love sleeping on the floor, it's that I love being a part of our children's lives! To stay in a hotel would be OK, but we would miss the little one's running downstairs to see what Santa brought, we would miss having a nightcap with our older kids after the little ones are tucked in and talking of the day's events. I would miss our daughter waking me at 5:00am for that"after Christmas sale" I guess family life is not for everyone, but I miss being involved with our family on a daily basis and look forward to holidays when I can actually be a "contributing part" and not just a guest.

Anyone who would make their parents sleep on the floor needs a wake-up call.<BR><BR>My relatives are kind enough to provide me with decent sleeping arrangements. None of them are rich, but all are concerned that they're guests are comfortable. If I invite people to stay, they either have a bed, a comfortable couch or a good thick futon mattress to sleep on, and their own room.

We used to go to my sisters house for Thanksgiving. The bed was the biggest problem, and turned into a family joke. <BR>The sofa-sleeper mattress was beyond hope. The metal bar pushed up the middle into our backs. <BR><BR>Each year, we would all jockey to sleep in the basement on the gym/dancing mats. But someone used to get stuck in the den with the sofa.<BR><BR>All of my sisters siblings used to talk about the "bed" - but nobody could ever say anything to her or her husband. It still is a topic of conversation.<BR><BR>Now she moved, and is too far away to visit. Plus, they sold the sofa.<BR><BR>Later, I found out that she would have liked to have known how bad the bed was so she could buy a new one. Afterall, they don't ever sleep on it. In fact, our mother would not stay in her house, but in a very nearby hotel, just because the bed was soooo bad. She is from the era that never, ever says anything bad to or about her kids; she didn't want to hurt her feelings.<BR><BR>I'll miss that Thanksgiving sofa - it gave our family something to talk about.<BR><BR>

When I was 30 yrs. younger, I didn't think anything of sleeping on the floor. When I was 20 yrs. younger, I had no problem with sleeping on a couch or air mattress. When I was 10 yrs. younger, I could cope with a sofa-bed if I didn't have to share it with my spouse. Now, I not only need a bed, I need one separate from my spouse, who is a dervish in his sleep.<BR><BR>However, I am stunned by the heavy pressure I get from my in-laws to stay at their house for T'giving, even if it means sleeping stuffed like laundry in any given space because they have insisted that 6 other relatives stay there too. They are clearly deeply offended when we book a nearby motel, take it somehow personally that we don't like them, aren't full of family feeling, aren't comfortable under their roof. They are only correct about that last part, but the more they lean on us, the more the second and first parts are in jeopardy.<BR><BR>On the other hand -- there always is another side -- we have a house with 2 spare rooms, each with two beds and their own bathroom; and I admit I am hurt when people decline to stay with us. But I guess it's because people feel that if they stay with us, they will have to spend all meals with us and socialize all day long -- even if I try to make it clear that they can use us for "home base" and come and go as they wish to see the tourist sites in our area -- just ask them to "reserve THursday night for dinner with us" or some such.

Hi, we never travel during Thanksgiving, due to my husbands business, but the rest of the family is invited to our house! They are always urged to stay with us, why have them trekking from some hotel to our house everyday, why should I not have the pleasure of them in the mornings, we see little enough of our children, one lives in Fla, the other in Japan, so they have to stay at home, there is no discussing this :0) I want a bigger house in the country so we can invite more people to visit during the holidays~

I am scared of driving this weekend anyway. Traffic will be terrible becasue all the people who usually fly will be on the roads.<BR><BR>I would prefer to stay at a hotel also. Relatives are best in short periods of time.

We're heading out in a few hours to drive 11+ hours to spend Thanksgiving with my in-laws. Their feelings would be HORRIBLY offended if we stayed at a motel while there. A couple of years ago, my FIL bought an inflatable mattress. They anticipated the children sleeping on it on the ground floor while everyone else slept in the bedrooms upstairs. After taking turns with my hubby on it with one of the kids, I finally put my foot down. It's on the floor at the foot of the bed in the room we use. With only 2 children sleeping on it, the air doesn't leak out overnight. It's a much better solution. Ya'll have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

The consensus among the group seems to be that it's best to stay at the relatives' house as opposed to a motel as long as the relatives can provide somewhat comfortable accomodations--a decent bed and a little privacy. For their part, poor relations (poor in money or poor in consideration) should be sensitive in not inviting their better-off relations to enjoy their cracker lifestyle for the holiday weekend.

Just to provide a different point of view: a couple of years ago we decided to take the whole week as vacation time. This allowed us to travel when it wasn't so busy. Our son was stationed in NC so we rented a great beach house. One of his buddies came too. The off season rate was just about the same as staying in a hotel. We had a home-cooked Thanksgiving and it was fun to explore the area. <BR>Last year he was in Japan. I'd like to thank all the married folks in the military who invite numerous single enlisted people to their homes for the holidays. The chow hall just doesn't cut it sometimes. <BR>Happy Thanksgiving everyone, wherever you are.

If it looks like I might be coerced into staying with a relative and I really want to stay somewhere else, I just claim that I have an allergy to whatever pet they happen to have. Works like a charm!