In its sixth annual holiday travel survey, Motel 6 surveyed 2,000 respondents who celebrate a winter holiday and found 84 percent of respondents plan to travel to at least one gathering. Of those, more than half (52 percent) expect to take more trips than last year.
This holiday season, 85 percent said spending time with friends and family outweighs the challenges of travel. When it comes to lodging, two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents traveling plan to stay at a hotel, an increase of nearly 20 percent since last year. Three out of five (60 percent) respondents said that pets will be joining their holiday journeys, up from 22 percent in 2022.
Two thirds (66 percent) of respondents noting a preference for a traditional holiday celebration with family, while only 20 percent opt to take a solo trip. Still, Americans agree that family gatherings can cause social batteries to run down quickly. More half (53 percent) of respondents look forward to alone time four hours into a holiday, while nearly one in five (19 percent) say it takes just one to two hours for them to start looking forward to alone time.
Nearly all (82 percent) of those celebrating winter holidays say the economic climate is impacting their plans this year. More than half are hoping to receive experience-based gifts (56 percent) this year, such as travel, and will be opting for affordable lodging (55 percent) for their journeys.