I prefer a central vac.

For a house with lots of hard flooring, definitely go with a central vac system that uses the hide a hose option rather than the 30ft snake you drag from outlet to outlet. When I had my home built three years ago we were forced to go with the one system our wiring company carried which was a standard system - Dirt Devil Pro Series 990. I was okay with this at the time because I grew up with a regular central vac system and was used to dealing with wrapping up the hose. It wasn't until I read all the comments on these boards that I found myself wishing I had investigated the hide a hose option. After about a year of using the central vac in my current home I noticed I was only using the central vac for weekly deep cleanings and using a regular vac for in-between cleanings solely because I detested wrapping up the hose. At that point, I reached out to a local dealer and he was able to retrofit a 40ft hide a hose outlet for the main living level. I must say, we use it all the time! Whenever something spills it's so easy to pull the hose out, do a quick clean up and suck the hose back in to the wall. We even use it to clean out our Neato Botvac (highly recommend that too!). My better half thought it was a waste of money and he uses it more than I do! We have a ton of hardwood floors and wool area rugs and the hide a hose works like a dream. Our cleaning lady still pulls out the old electric hose and power nozzle to deep clean any wall to wall areas but the Turbocat does a pretty good job for being air-powered. I will never build another house without hide a hose!

I just had a hide a hose system put into our new construction home yesterday. It's one of the things I'm most excited about. I have heard great things! Btw - we will have all hardwoods.