Real wood or Laminate?

[jackpot]

Have a grotty Beech coloured laminate in the hallway and want to get rid and replace.. At first i wanted carpet but the Mrs says it will get rotten with new baby on the way with pram etc, and wants the laminate to stay.
So to compromise we agreed on getting new floor but i would like a real wood floor.

What is the main benefits of these two?

 

[WoodYouLike]

Laminated (Melamine, 'plastic') = copy of wood in Melamine resin. When damaged (and will get a lot of wear and tear in hallway) floor is gone.
Real wood can be solid or wood-engineered flooring (with solid top layer of 3 - 6mm thick). In hallways, because of differences in temperature and moist (wet shoes, wheels of prams etc) wood-engineered flooring is much more stable than solid.
On lacquered floors wet marks will show very easy (and in order to keep a nice appearance it will need cleaning very often), an oil finish will not show that easy.
There's also a difference in tackling minor damages between a lacquered or oiled finish, oiled ones are easier.

Hope this helps