Nate Ludens
Director of Digital Marketing
About Rio Las Vegas
Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is one of the city's most famous venues. First opened in 1990 with a pioneering all-suite concept, it has since expanded to offer more than 2,500 rooms. Operating in one of the world's most competitive hospitality markets, the hotel's marketing team needed a technology partner who could deliver both performance and responsiveness with limited internal resources.
Competing in the world's toughest hotel market
Las Vegas is unforgiving. Hotels compete hard for the same guests, market conditions shift dramatically, and occupancy can swing “from sold out to very slow periods", according to Nate Ludens, Director of Digital Marketing at Rio Las Vegas.
Rio needed to fill 2,500 rooms consistently while reducing OTA dependence, since OTA bookings come with high costs and a different guest profile.
“In the past, third party bookings had high cancellation rates, paid rock bottom rates and didn’t care to enjoy all of our amenities. Today we’re going for a better customer. OTAs are still important but direct booking don’t see those same issues.”
Nate Ludens, Director of Digital Marketing, Rio Las Vegas
In this environment it’s essential to optimize every marketing channel. Rio's partnership with Triptease began with their website, adopting Triptease Messages and Display Retargeting to maximize existing traffic and recapture visitors who left without booking.
Building a direct booking foundation
In ultra-competitive Las Vegas, Rio needed to quickly activate seasonal promotions and personalize booking experiences. Triptease Messages enabled the team to surface timely offers without web development resources, critical for a small group operating at what Nate calls "the 300 mile per hour Rio way."
Results validated this approach. One targeted summer promotion generated thousands of dollars in revenue over just a few days, while another high-performing message drove a six-figure direct booking value over the life of the campaign.
"I showed this to the leadership team and they love to see these type of returns - we agreed that we should keep doing what we’re doing."
Nate Ludens, Director of Digital Marketing, Rio Las Vegas
Across multiple campaigns—from seasonal promotions to events like bourbon tasting weekends—Triptease Messages has helped to convert hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct revenue.
Retargeting that delivers
Triptease Retargeting quickly became a key part of Rio's direct booking strategy. Over 25 ad display networks keep Rio front of mind for potential guests who leave the website without booking, but visibility isn’t the only driver of success.
Every ad is personalized with guest-specific search dates and room rates, and bidding is automatically optimized to target the most likely bookers. The platform consistently delivers strong performance, achieving an average 17x ROAS in 2025.
"Triptease really delivers results - they make me and my team look good every day."
Nate Ludens, Director of Digital Marketing, Rio Las Vegas
When renovation raised the stakes
In 2023 Rio embarked on a property-wide transformation. This investment increased pressure on the marketing team. "A significant investment has been spent renovating the property," Nate explains, "so now we have to not only put heads in beds, but do it more quickly and efficiently."
Rio's previous metasearch provider couldn't keep pace. Technical issues were frequent, and support responses took days—far too slow when downtime means lost bookings. "I couldn't do this if meta is down," Nate explains. "I've got to get it back up fast. I can't be waiting days."
Switching to Triptease Metasearch was driven by both necessity and trust. Rio team had already seen strong results from Messages and Retargeting, and knew how responsive the company’s support would be.
Automated Metasearch optimization
Rio's metasearch approach is clear: booking volume, room nights and revenue are what matters. "Heads in beds is my only goal," as Nate puts it.
Triptease's automated bidding algorithm supported this strategy without adding to the team’s workload. The platform continuously adjusts bids based on parity data and performance targets, ensuring Rio appears prominently when guests search for Las Vegas hotels.
Results followed. Consistent growth in booking volume and direct revenue (revenue from Metasearch grew 71% in just 6 months thanks to ongoing campaign optimization) gave Rio confidence to progressively increase metasearch spend to 4x the original budget. "If we're getting good ROI," Nate notes, "the Leadership team would give me a green light to invest more."
Always looking for the next advantage
Nate and Rio’s Marketing team actively seek capabilities that can set them apart from competitors. The hotel has been an early adopter of Triptease innovations including the new Triptease Messages product, an even more flexible and powerful way to deliver on-site personalization, and Metasearch Date Boost, enabling extra investment on specific dates to maximize visibility during low demand periods.
This willingness to test new features reflects Rio's broader approach: in a market as competitive as Las Vegas, standing still means falling behind. The partnership with Triptease provides both proven tools and emerging capabilities.
An ongoing partnership
Rio's journey with Triptease demonstrates how a small team can achieve outsized results with the right technology partner. What began as website optimization has expanded into a multi-channel direct booking strategy delivering measurable results in one of hospitality's toughest markets.
Rising booking volume and direct revenue have given Rio confidence to progressively expand their Triptease partnership—proof that the platform delivers on its promise to help hotels compete effectively for direct bookings.
“Our partnership with Triptease is fantastic. It’s not just about the products and what they do. They’re ready to help whenever we need them, with advice as well as support. It’s so different from a lot of other vendors.
Nate Ludens, Director of Digital Marketing, Rio Las Vegas
