Hotard Coaches

Calco Travel and Hotard Coaches provide customers with more than 100 years of combined experience in the transportation industry.As two brands operating under a single local ownership Calco Travel and Hotard Coaches are two of the most diverse destination management companies in the Gulf Coast Region.Calco Travel and Hotard Coaches are currently owned by Callen and Coleen Hotard. Calco Travel began in 1935 as Hotard Bus Line by Callen’s grandfather Etienne Hotard.It was originally a line run service connecting the Eastbank River Parishes to New Orleans.The company owned three buses that would make the daily trips into the city and occasionally do charter work on the weekends.Etienne eventually passed the company down to his son Sidney Callen’s father.Under the second generation ownership the company continued to grow in popularity.There was such a demand for this type of service that a second line run company was eventually started by other members of the Hotard family to connect the Westbank River Parishes with New Orleans.This company Hotard Coaches was headquartered in New Orleans. Callen began working for his father driving the line run service to New Orleans during the week and charter work on the weekends.In 1986 Callen and his wife Coleen began a travel agency Calco Travel.It was formed to provide packaged tours and to also handle operations for the Hotard Bus Line on a contract basis helping the family business to go after more charter work. By the late 1990’s it was becoming increasingly difficult to have two bus companies with the Hotard name.Hotard Bus Line decided to change their name to Premier Motorcoach.In 1999 the Hotard Family sold their company Hotard Coaches to Greyhound although it still operated under the Hotard name. In the spring of 2001 Callen and Coleen purchased Premier Motorcoach from his father.They still operated Calco Travel and decided to change Premier to Calco Travel so that both companies would be in one name. In 2007 Callen and Coleen purchased Hotard Coaches from Greyhound once again bringing it under family ownership. Today Calco Travel and Hotard Coaches operate over 70 vehicles employ over 150 people and have 4 different locations throughout the Gulf South. In addition to IMG Calco and Hotard are also members of various industry organizations including: Motorcoach Council South Central Motorcoach Association New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Lafayette Convention and Visitor Commission United Motorcoach Group American Bus Association Calco Travel and Hotard Coaches both do a tremendous amount of contract work including emergency response contracts crew changes and most of the Universities in our Region.Hotard Coaches currently has the LA Swift contract which is a state contract that runs a shuttle between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.Most recently both companies have been contracted to provide transportation for the workers helping to clean up the oil spill. """