Live! Casino Louisiana in Bossier City has initiated a first. They have become the first in the entire Live! chain of venues to become part of the Hilton hotel system.
It is a big deal, says Live! Louisiana General Manager John Chaszar, because it gives the Bossier City hotel access to Hilton’s international reservations system and positions the Live! Hotel as a Sunday-through-Thursday business destination.
The reservations system through Hilton went online January 28.
“We believe it’s gonna be a home run from a hotel standpoint,” Chaszar told The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate. “You look at us, you look across the highway at the other hotels that we have in this market. They’re gigantic hotels, but they were built for weekends, but there’s a significant amount of demand here for business travelers. And business travelers are very loyal to their different loyalty programs.”
Chaszar said by becoming one of the Curio Collection by Hilton partners, a stay at Live! Louisiana will be a part of the Hilton Honors Program. “Folks will receive the benefits that they receive at any other Hilton property,” he said.
“We believe that Hilton is going to be the number one partner for us in order to grow our hotel business, because we have 549 rooms, easy to fill on Friday and Saturday night, not so easy to fill Sunday through Thursday.”
Becoming a Hilton franchisee to appeal to business travelers puts Live! Louisiana in direct competition with downtown’s Shreveport Hilton, a hotel owned by the City of Shreveport.
A guest room at Live! Casino & Hotel Louisiana, in Bossier City, La., shown here on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024.
“I’m sure having new competition in the market absolutely will dilute the market a little bit,” admitted Chaszar. “But we also believe that there’s a tremendous amount of demand in this market, whether it be from oil and gas or banking or the medical fields, three primary sources of income in this area. We believe there’s a tremendous amount of demand there.”
Chaszar said that he “kind of went out on a limb with the ownership group,” but he believes several of the other Live! hotels will also opt to affiliate with Hilton if things go as well here as he believes they will.
“It’s just a tremendous marketing tool.”
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