What Do Your Politics Say About How You Travel?
Hipmunk takes a revealing look at how Republicans and Democrats travel, including hotel preferences and over-packing tendencies.
With plenty of buzz already leading up to the 2016 presidential election, Hipmunk—a T+L favorite for hotel and airline bookings—surveyed 1,000 self-identifying Democrats and Republicans about their travel habits. Among the findings:
1. Democrats like to roll their clothes into their suitcases; Republicans fold them into neat squares.
2. Democrats are almost twice as likely than Republicans to use Uber or Lyft to get to the airport. Less surprising: Democrats are also twice as likely to take public transportation. The preferred mode of transport for Republicans about to catch a flight? Their own four wheels.
3. Boutique hotels are the most popular type of lodging for members of both parties. For Republicans, luxury hotels are a very close runner up, but Democrats put the five-star stay in last place.
4. 27 percent of Democrats confess to exceeding their carry-on limits, outdoing Republicans by 8 percent.
5. When talking about free hotel amenities, Republicans prefer to get breakfast on the house—for Democrats, it’s all about free Wi-Fi.
But the biggest surprise of all? Nobody—nobody!—has especially strong feelings about avoiding airplane bathrooms. Anyway, the full chart is right this way.
Nikki Ekstein is an associate editor at Travel + Leisure. Follow her on Twitter at @nikkiekstein.