Tucker stays in the bathroom while i'm gone during the day. i'm usually gone too long for him to hold it in his crate, so he has pee pads in the bathroom where he will go. he never poops inside, though. he usually waits until i get home to let him out. he prefers to go outside.
the pee pads have helped us when we visit other homes, though.
when we go inside, i lay down the pad close to the door so if he needs to go, he knows where it is. it works very well for us at the neighbor's house because they have big dogs. tucker loves them, but he often will not go potty outside. he uses the pee pads at their house very well. but like i said, our preferrence is that he goes outside.