You are right about them using local that seems to be why they are listing cities like Seattle as locations that they film. For Seattle they just have Dice come up from Portland for a weekend or few days and they film in a hotel room, bar, or bathhouse using locals and sometimes a few out of town stars but the stars seem to be doing escort work, or gogo work at local clubs and bars to maximize their earnings for the visit which would indicate they had to pay for their own travel.
Piracy and the idea some have that porn should just be free (then who pays for making it?) is what has killed the days of $500 per scene and travel expenses covered. Studios now either have to pay a company to patrol the web for their pirated stuff to file take down requests or do it themselves both of which are not cheap and then you have to continually monitor because it is like playing whack a mole they just get reposted again. Or they just give up and let videos get pirated and settle for the reduced revenue either way they are not making the money they used too.