Bally's Shreveport Casino & Hotel — Attraction in Shreveport

There's a lot of room for improvement.

The entry from the parking garage is gross. The elevators are questionable. When I learned that Bally's used to be the El Dorado Casino, I was excited to see the renovations/changes. There are none.

Check-in experience: we arrived in the evening. No one was at the front desk. Not really a problem because it was late, but you have no visual on where anyone could possibly be. There was no signage to say they'd "brb." No bell to ring. No one else wandering around. No response to our "hello?" Nothing. So we just stood there and waited. Then the phone rang and someone appeared from the back. Yay. The person was as excited to be there as we were to be waiting. There was no information about the hotel, times for room service, where anything was located, no baggage cart, nothing. Just "name...card on file... here's your key."

Back to the lack of renovations, there are literally no upgrades. Wallpaper and paint peeling off the walls. Water pressure is low. Decor is old. Room amenities (tv, clock, mini fridge, etc.), old. A/C unit, old. Lights and switches, old. Some didn't even work. There's no microwave, but there's a fridge. Ice maker on our floor didn't work. I'm convinced the only updates made to this place is changing the logo.

"Room Service"...non-existent. The instructions on the website says to "just dial '0'" from your room phone. We did that, it directs you to the front desk. We let them know that we would like to order room service. The front desk rep says "do you want their number because there's a button on your phone to press for room service." Ok, my bad, I'll do that. We press the "room service" button. It goes straight to voicemail. So we call the front desk to let them know, and to see if they can assist. THE SAME REP says "room service is closed." (This was 2 hours before their listed closing time.) The next time we attempted to order room service, we pressed the "room service" button first! Straight to voicemail. Called the front desk, they just transferred us back to the voicemail. We tried calling directly again 10 mins later, voicemail. Repeat the cycle. We decided to just go to the restaurant and order ourselves. Maybe they were busy. Nope. So I'm not sure what happened. Of the 3 times we attempted room service, we were only able to successfully order once.

My partner went downstairs early one morning and his key was no longer working, so he went to the front desk for assistance. He didn't have his wallet on him to show ID, so the guest services rep called the room to confirm he was allowed up. She said, "there's a scraggly stranger named ** saying he's staying there, is he allowed up?" I laughed and said yes because my partner is a joker, and easily banters with anyone. When he made it back to the room, he was visibly annoyed. Saying that the entire interaction was frustrating. First, he was only going downstairs because the ice machine on our floor wasn't working. And when we called the front desk for ice, instead of them bringing ice, we were told to check any of the other floors for ice. So, instead of guessing which floors to go to, he just went to the first floor. It's first thing in the morning, so he's in sweats and slippers. The person who he asked to reactivate his key, is the same person that directed him to the ice machine, and saw him head to the elevators. He steps off because you cannot go up if your key isn't working. He goes to the front desk to ask for the key to be reactivated, was asked his info, and needed to provide id, which he didn't have on him, so that was the reason for the call. So, the guest rep just thought it would be beneficial to insult him and call him scraggly. No funny banter, just rudeness.

On a positive note, the lobby...

This is the most confusing casino I've ever been to and the rooms are complete trash. There's so much wrong here that I don't even know where to start... First, the parking garage is across from the casino, but that's not the confusing part. The confusion starts when you park. If you don't have valet parking, there's no signs anywhere telling you where to check into the hotel at. You end up walking straight into the casino with your bags and asking for help immediately.

Next, I head to the most unprofessional front desk I've ever been to... It starts off nice, but when you get done, they just hand you your keys and stare at you. I had to ask if I was done, or what. No "Good luck" or "Enjoy your stay", or the most important thing here: "You'll head to the elevator directly behind you and use your room key to activate the elevator."... Everyone we can in contact with had the same experience and was able to laugh with each other about it, but the front desk workers seem to be setting us all up for a prank...

Next, the rooms are like half the size of The Horseshoe's and make no sense. We ended up in a disability room (not on request, so I assume they're all ADA accessible) that looks like a handicapped person remodeled it... The wallpaper is peeling off in 2-3 places. There are multiple gauges in the drawers and fridge area. Stains on the carpet. The front door doesn't shut all the way. The front door doesn't close all the way. The curtains are inconveniently positioned right behind 2 chairs and have no draw handles on them to pull the curtains with, so I have to squeeze behind the chairs to close the curtains (Not sure how a disabled person is supposed accomplish this because a wheelchair cannot fit behind there and you have to be able to move the chairs to get to the curtains). The bed frame is sticking out far enough to injure someone. And one of the outlets are completely blown, so the lamp that's plugged in is just for looks.

On to the casino itself... Ever casino I've ever been to will have 2-3 rewards kiosks INSIDE the casino itself. This casino puts 2 kiosks just on the outside of the entrance, but hidden way over in the corner so you'll walk past it every time. The reason they do this is so the door man has to count the traffic again, so it makes it seem like more people visit this casino than what is actually visiting. Then my rewards card was deactivated somehow, so I had to go back to the service counter to get that fixed. Then I had a floor member say something about my dad and I having the same name on our cards, but the service counter can't put a 2 or 3 at the end. Not even in Roman Numerals, but they had me go try to figure out how to fix their own mistakes... When I finally get to the tables, I had the most childish experience ever... The blackjack dealer was very friendly, but he made so many mistakes... He didn't ask us for insurance one time and the pit boss didn't care. He let the hand go, even though other PBs were questioning the situation. Then he would pick up our side bets that we won on, but then claim he "didn't see it" so they would have to call the PB over and have him check the cameras... This happened 2-3 times. Next, I walked around and came back with a different dealer. She took my player's card and the PB lost it... It took them like 15mins to find it.

I've never had such an awful experience...

I have traveled for business and pleasure for decades therefore, I have stayed at a large number of hotels. Normally I am quite pleased with my stay, but this hotel had me, well, sad.

I have stayed at several casinos and normally the hotels are the best. This Bally's location, I believe at one time, was quite the show, but now, it is tired and ready for a re-do. The problem is, I don't think it has the clientele to justify one.

We found out the Valet service ended during covid, and we had to park in the open parking lot across the street. Thankfully there was a top-notch bellman who took care of our many bags with total professionalism, even though he was younger.

The check-in process, I give 5/10. The check-in was slow, and the staff did not seem to care how they handled things so, it went at their speed and pace.

The room seemed tired. The room looked very clean and well organized but when you began to look you see the age catching up. The wallpaper was pulling away from the wall. The tile in the bathroom was old and while looking clean was dirty. The shower worked well but had years of dirt building up on the floor.

The bed was comfortable but about halfway through the night I noticed my wife and I were forced to the middle of the mattress due to it caving in. The blankets were clean but not adequate to keep us warm. We had to ask the front desk for one and it was sent up very quickly and made a difference. The HVAC works quite well in the room, and it became cold during the night. The carpet seemed to have a greasy feeling on it due to its numerous cleanings. I give the rooms 3/10.

Now for the really sad part, the selection of restaurants was horrible. There was 1 place to eat. ONE! and the service and food were less than acceptable. Our first night we had dinner and had to wait 15 minutes for the waitress to greet us and then about 40 minutes for our food. About 35 minutes into the wait, we had to remind our waitress about my wife's soda. Which was more syrup than soda. We were stuck having breakfast at the same restaurant the next morning and the service was just the same. The food came out in spurts to tables, and it was warm to just above room temp. I give the restaurants a 1/10.

The casino was lackluster and quite empty. I walked around and checked out the tables and I was not impressed at all. I decided not to gamble. I give the casino a 4/10.

Our check-out was better than the check-in and the bellman was again the star of the show. I asked him to go to our room where my wife was waiting and retrieve the bags. By the time I checked out, walked over to get the car across the street, he was waiting with everything. He loaded them into the car very carefully and better than we ever could have. Honestly, the only reason Service received 3 stars is due to the bellman and the gentleman who brought our blanket. The bellman and room service gentleman get a 10/10.

I am sure this could be a great hotel again, but it needs to be updated. The staff needs to have a great deal of customer service training.

Only if there is no other place to stay would I stay here. I give the hotel a...