If you work outdoor, both IR and light receivers can be noised. But if you work indoor, IR is better, because the neon lamp do not produce IR waves.
However, people see that red light transceivers can work better than IR. With a red light TCeivers, the forward distance may upto more than 10 meters. But the IR I saw is max 7m. In refletion applications, the IR range is about 1m, but red light can detect much farther.