Is staying in the new going out?Home is where the party is, survey shows
Nights in are having a moment — Americans are twice as likely to favor hosting guests at home rather than going out.
That's according to a new survey of 2,000 Americans, which found, of those who have a preference, 72% prefer staying in with friends, whenever possible, while just 28% prefer a night out.
49% said this shift came in the past few years.
The key to hosting at home?
A majority of respondents say a pleasant scent can transform how inviting a space feels for a home gathering (78%).
4 Nights in are having a moment — Americans are twice as likely to favor hosting guests at home rather than going out.
gpointstudio – stock.adobe.com
The survey, conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Air Wick, also found 82% of participants actively consider how their home smells before inviting people over.
Prepping for both planned and last-minute gatherings, respondents reported spending anywhere from 10 minutes to over two hours preparing their house ahead of guests, with two hours and 10 minutes the average prep time.
This time is often driven by concerns such as freshening up the house with the right scent, stressing about whether guests are comfortable, and wanting everything to be perfect.
4 72% prefer staying in with friends, whenever possible, while just 28% prefer a night out.
Talker Research/Air Wick/SWNS
In addition to the more comfortable environment (65%), 53% said hosting at home is a great way to save money, and 47% said it's easier to hear each other.
Avoiding crowds (47%), having more control over ambiance, food, drinks, and entertainment (42%), and not having to get dressed up (24%) are additional benefits to hosting at home.
'With more Americans opting for home gatherings, it's clear that comfort, meaningful connections, and subtle touches like a pleasant home fragrance or ambient lighting are becoming the new priorities for socializing,' Julia Mellberg, a spokesperson for Air Wick, said.
'These survey results highlight how hosting at home allows consumers to create an environment reflecting their personal style and be always inviting, no matter the occasion.'
So, what are your favorite occasions for a night in?
Participants favor hosting birthday celebrations (49%), dinner parties (44%), and movie nights (37%), followed by game nights (35%) and TV-watch parties (29%).
Whatever the affair or the reason, an inviting space fuels connections among friends, according to 74% of respondents who feel they can have deeper, more meaningful conversations during a night in.
Checking in on family updates and giving the latest on personal lives is the most common topic of conversation (69%) at most at-home gatherings.
A bit of good old-fashioned gossip (44%) and news and politics (35%) are other popular topics of conversation respondents reported indulging in.
For these conversation-filled nights in, the sweet spot is just under three and a half hours (three hours and 24 minutes).
Approximately half (49%) of respondents reported that setting the right vibe and incorporating a home fragrance are critical components for creating an inviting ambiance for guests.
4 In addition to the more comfortable environment, 53% of respondents said hosting at home is a great way to save money, and 47% said it's easier to hear each other.
Talker Research/Air Wick/SWNS
4 A bit of good old-fashioned gossip, news, and politics are popular topics of conversation respondents reported indulging in.
Davide Angelini – stock.adobe.com
The top three scents preferred by hosts looking to make a good impression this spring and summer were described as fresh and clean (64%), warm and cozy (45%), and floral (36%).
'Hosting at home is an exciting way to put your mark on a shared experience with loved ones,' adds Mellberg. 'Whether you're hosting a small movie night or a big birthday celebration, the right home fragrance can turn any gathering into a memorable event.'
SEVEN ESSENTIALS FOR A GOOD NIGHT IN
Good food and drinks (72%)
Having the right people present (61%)
Comfy seating (52%)
A tidy and welcoming space (46%)
Great music or entertainment (38%)
Pleasant scent/fragrance (24%)
Cozy lighting (22%)
BIGGEST STRESSORS WHEN HOSTING GUESTS AT HOME
Cleaning (46%)
Cooking (34%)
Making guests comfortable (26%)
Feeling pressure to make everything perfect (25%)
Running out of food or drinks (23%)
Making sure there's enough seating and space for everyone (20%)
Budgeting for the event (19%)
Guests overstaying their welcome (15%)
Keeping kids or pets under control during the gathering (14%)
Freshening up the house with the right scent (13%)
Worrying about guests judging my home (13%)
Managing different personalities and social dynamics (12%)
Planning entertainment (12%)
Worrying about potential messes or spills (11%)
Planning the right vibe (lighting, music, decor, etc.) (11%)
Handling last-minute cancellations or no-shows (7%)
Survey methodology:
Talker Research surveyed 1,000 gen pop and 1,000 people who host; the survey was commissioned by Air Wick and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between March 25 – March 31, 2025.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
16 hours ago
- New York Post
Baja fresh: This Cabo San Lucas hotel is a celebrity oasis
As a professional NFL player, now spiraling pigskin as a backup QB for the Miami Dolphins, Zach Wilson knows his way around a ball. But his fiancée, Nicolette Dellanno, threw an even bigger ball recently. This past March, the soon-to-be-bride chose Mexico's lively southern West Coast — Cabo San Lucas — to party down with gal pals, bachelorette style! The town is wee, wee, wee all the way down the Sur half of the hallowed Baja California peninsula, conjoined via walkable corridor with its hermano, San José del Cabo, and straddled by the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California (un-wokely, the latter is known as the Sea of Cortés). 4 Nicolette Dellanno enjoyed her bachelorette bash in Cabo ahead of her wedding to QB Zach Wilson. Nicolette Dellanno/Instagram Dellanno, who announced her engagement to the former Jet, 25, last summer, flaunted a white one-piece with as she sunbathed at SUR Beach House in CSL, according to an earlier Post report. (Cabo was also TripAdvisor's No. 5 international destination to visit for Americans in 2025). Swimwear and sand aside, the whys of visiting the Cabos hermanos remain endless: that famed granitic arch standing amid the surfable sea, the breaching whales, the ubiquitous live music. But the 'where to lay your head' thing? That's a more interesting question. This sneaker-friendly municipality blends together locals and travelers, taquerias and speakeasies, craft coffee and top-shelf cuisine. It's also a little sketch, in a good way. Certain properties here can just sleaze away in the breeze, old-school cabeño-style. But a select few are posh, scene-y and classy. One most of all is almost demurely hiding behind its own open-kitchen, wood-fired, pizza-serving restaurant Esquina. 4 Bahia is an urban oasis away from the hustle and bustle of Cabo. Courtesy of Bahia Hotel & Beach House Blanco as blanco can be, and always fire pit- and light-strand-illuminated at night, we called Bahia Hotel & Beach House home (from $133 a night). But just how, legally, does this boutique bed broker get away with that whole 'and Beach House' nomenclature when it's literally squatting on a very urban, passers-by-in-the-gazillions corner slice of downtown Cabo San Lucas? Because the genius partners (after the crash of 2008, no less) Felipe Rebelo and Lee Vosburgh revamped the '80s-built joint and tethered it exclusively to that forementioned SUR Beach Club literally right down the road, offering Bahia's guests priority seating (read: guaranteed staked shade umbrellas, booze-balancing waiters and as-clean-as-they're-able-to-be chaise lounges) all on a private, roped-off piece of Medano Beach (the only swimmable one in the area) with a very unique side-boob view of its famed aquatic arch. 4 Bahia has plenty of in-house nosh plus a roped-off private area at its SUR Beach House to enjoy it. NY Post photo composite 4 Golden arches, kinda/sorta seeable from SUR, mean something quite different in Cabo. Shutterstock Just hop their 20-second golf cart taxi and suddenly that sweltering Mexican asphalt beneath your feet transforms into sugary sand like magic. With only 89 (many Jaccuzied) rooms arranged over a modest six floors, Bahia likes familiar faces. Loyal guests will often bump fists or whatever the kids are doing and chitchat with the staffers and owners alike. If you do venture off-site with all of those dizzying distractions and never try one of Tacos Gardenia's fried shelled fare, self-flagellate 39 times like a Benedict monk and come back next summer to repent. They're a must (and only a block from the hotel). Just don't be worried about those bloodthirsty Mexican C-words around these parts — locals here jokingly refer to cartels as 'country clubs.' The one heavily fortified, maximum prison-looking structure on that long, lonely stretch of cacti-rife land between Los Cabos International Airport and CSL you'll notice is a military outpost whose camo-clad, albeit fairly low-key occupants you just might see around town specifically keep them varmints at bay. (And PS those prickly water-bloated succulents that happen to populate that vast desert keep fires away, too, just in case you're taking notes, America-side California.) College kids, the other C-word, however? They haven't invented a weapon strong enough to stave them off yet. One day.
Elle
a day ago
- Elle
Why This Surprising 1980s Style Is Back In Full Force
In its heyday, the term 'yuppie' felt ubiquitous, even if it only applied to a small slice of the population, and chances were, you were either very pro or very anti. Though the '80s were marked by the younger cohort of well-educated baby boomers flocking to urban areas, transforming their cities of choice both geographically and culturally, the phenomenon still felt like the brief flash of an asteroid in a period defined by a massive variety of expressive styles. (The term enjoyed less than a decade in the limelight: it was first popularized in a Chicago Tribune column in 1983 and the 'death of yuppies' was officially declared following the stock market crash in 1987.) Yuppies wanted to create a 'bigger, better, and shinier ' way of life, Avery Trufelman, host of the popular style podcast Articles of Interest, tells ELLE. These young, upwardly mobile professionals represented a sudden splintering in the middle class, as the income of college-educated Americans disproportionately skyrocketed, and yuppies were right there to spend it, even as the bottom half of American families experienced a significant drop. Cut to 30 years later, swap Dorrian's and The Quilted Giraffe with TikTok's must-visit restaurants, and the trend is back, this time in an even more widespread and pervasive way. You might have noticed it creeping in—faux tennis merch for 'hot girl walks,' run clubs for singles, discourse about how 'nice it is to be a West Village Girl,' flitting to and from Pilates. Health is once again the ultimate symbol of status and wealth, and so is a name-brand wardrobe. That's not to say that designer clothing ever lost its cachet, rather that 2025 yuppies have a renewed brazenness in their spending, and social media-first living has paved the way for luxury athletic capsules, cross-industry collaborations, and influencer-driven 'It' girl brands that have cemented themselves amongst the tiers of traditional luxury. In comparison to last summer's new-wave prep revival, which brought a resurgence of boat shoes and embraced a casual undoneness, thanks to brands like Miu Miu and Wales Bonner, there's a certain overtness that yuppie culture wholeheartedly embraces in its quest for perfection. 'You're looking at the labels. You're asking 'who's wearing what sunglasses?' The bottoms of your khakis aren't frayed—it's very clean,' explains Trufelman. Tennis, golf, and sailing, while traditionally wealthy sports, are extending even further into the zeitgeist of the aspirational mainstream. For yuppies, both then and now, leisure-class and fitness-driven activities promise tantalizing access to a glowing new tier of life filled with suntans, spritzes, and the perfect summer sandals. Earlier this year, Miu Miu launched a rolling series of pop-ups for its 'Gymnasium' collection, offering a selection of low-profile sneakers and elegant American sportswear, two trends that are currently dominating summer dressing. Likewise, Gap recently partnered with Malbon Golf for a course-inspired capsule, Aimé Leon Dore's spring 2025 collection is filled with sailing-themed apparel, and Burberry is taking over The Newt, a country estate and luxury spa in Somerset, for a summer full of bespoke lawn sport experiences. In 2025, access to the yuppie aesthetic is more likely to begin with a name-brand athletic crewneck than with a country club membership. '[Sporty & Rich] was just an aspiration of mine to be part of this world in my own way,' founder Emily Oberg tells ELLE. Since its inception in 2015, her brand has held firm in its popularization of affluent American sport aesthetics. For Oberg, who has both Canadian and Filipino roots, 'it was [about] building something that represented that world, [without] necessarily having to have been born into it.' Current offerings on the website include a collaboration with Adidas in 'court green' colorways, 'Beverly Hills Riding Club' T-shirts, Vendome Tennis Bags, and a 'Health is Wealth' baseball cap in Reagan-era red, white, and blue. Oberg is right. The difference now is almost everyone seems in on it—at least more willingly than before. Letterboxd watch lists like 'Yuppies in Peril' have yet to update to include a Gen Z version, and in the meantime, brands are tapping into the revival as much as popular culture is heralding it. Take Frame, which just released a collection with Sotheby's featuring items like 'COLLECTOR' T-shirts. Not many would think to pair a storied auction house with a customer-favorite denim brand. However the two came together, explicitly inspired by the vibrant energy of 1980s New York, where Wall Streeters and affluent art curators collided in perfect yuppie harmony. There's an undeniable glamour in being able to enjoy life so freely, enjoy a dose of unabashed selfishness, and look good while doing it, especially if you draw parallels to yuppies' '80s origins. Adds Trufelman, 'It's rather an old resurgence of this idea 'I'm just here to have a good time,' and in big bad New York City, there's a group of people [recreating] the last days of disco.'
CNBC
2 days ago
- CNBC
Americans say these are the top 5 things they waste the most money on
Wasteful spending can happen to anyone. Take Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who spent thousands on VIP bottle service in nightclubs his rookie year in the NFL, leaving him "damn near dead broke," he said on his "New Heights" podcast in 2023. Or Chris Nassetta, the CEO of Hilton, who once spent $20,000 on a Porsche while fresh off a breakup in his 20s, he told CNBC Make It in 2023. While these examples tend to the extreme, 85% of Americans say they will at least occasionally spend money on an unnecessary expense, according to a survey of 2,000 Americans released last week by Motley Fool Money. Here are the top five most reported wasteful spending habits: It's no surprise food has such a prominent role in wasteful spending. For a significant majority of people self-made millionaire and author Ramit Sethi talks to, food "is the biggest category where there's money to free up and redirect into something that matters more," he wrote in February. Not only is spending on food hard to track, especially for couples, but Sethi said buying food is also an emotional decision: "It's about convenience, impulsivity, reward and more." Whether it's ordering food out of convenience or buying something new due to boredom at home — which is when Motley Fool Money says wasteful spending happens the most — here are three steps experts say you can take to control unnecessary spending. To curb impulsive spending, "one of the biggest things you can do is take a beat," Keith Barron, a personal finance expert and former head of marketing at Jenius Bank, said in 2024. Instead of immediately heading to the check out tab when online shopping, add the item you want to buy to a wish list and wait a couple of days to see if you're still interested in buying the product. Often, you'll find you no longer want it, Barron said. In a world where online shopping can be seamless, consider adding additional steps that will make spending more difficult, such as going to a store in person or turning on mobile banking notifications, Samantha Rosenberg, co-founder and COO of wealth-building platform Belong, said last fall. "The extra decision points like choosing the store, traveling there, evaluating the item in the flesh and then having to stand in line to buy it will help you slow down and think more critically about your purchases," Rosenberg said. Automating financial tasks — such as directing money into retirement accounts like a 401(k) or individual retirement account, or into a high-yield savings account — through payroll deductions or regular bank withdrawals can help prevent wasteful spending that eats into your savings, Sethi said on his "Money for Couples" podcast last year. "If you want your money to go somewhere, you need to make it automatic," Sethi said. "Whatever is left, you're going to spend it."
