Westmont Hotels engaged Auden to review the food and beverage strategy at Hilton Dresden.

The starting point was a venue that had lost relevance. The hotel needed to decide what came next.

A new in-house concept.

Or a third-party lease.

The answer could not sit in one room. Hilton Dresden had multiple F&B spaces facing one of the busiest pedestrian routes in the city. Each space had a role. Each space had potential. Each space affected the other.

The brief became sharper.

What should be operated?

What should be leased?

What should be repositioned?

And how could Westmont turn a prime address into stronger commercial performance?

The opportunity was already there. It just needed a sharper strategy.

The street was busy. Competitors were visible. Terraces were active. Guests were already moving between the river and the square with money to spend.

Hilton Dresden had the footfall.

It needed more pull.

Auden spent three days in Dresden reviewing the market, walking the streets, studying guest behaviour, analysing venue performance and speaking with the hotel team.

The pattern was clear.

This was an impulse market. Guests were not always searching for a destination restaurant. They were choosing quickly. What looked alive. What felt easy. What seemed comfortable. What gave them confidence from the street.

The hotel did not need another complicated idea. It needed clearer reasons for people to stop.

Westmont had asked what to do with one space, the strategy showed how the full portfolio could work harder.

The question started with one underperforming space. The answer was bigger. Westmont needed a strategy that made the whole F&B portfolio work harder.

The footfall was already there. The issue was capture. The venues needed stronger visibility, sharper street appeal and a clearer reason for guests to stop.

This was not a slow-burn destination market. Guests were choosing in the moment. The strategy had to win on clarity, comfort, confidence and energy.

The market was full of obvious choices. The answer was not to be clever for the sake of it. It was to create something warm, generous and easy to love, with enough difference to stand out.

Not every space needed to be operated in-house. The strategy challenged where ownership added value, where a lease could reduce complexity and where the hotel could protect upside without carrying the whole operation.

Some of the biggest gains were hiding in the day-to-day. Guest flow, space use, labour, waste, retail capture and operational duplication all had room to work harder.

The final direction gave the key restaurant space a stronger commercial role. Visible from the street. Easy to understand. Built around comfort, generosity and repeat appeal.

Westmont received a strategy that went beyond the original question. Not just what to do with one venue. What to do with the portfolio.

The work gave the leadership team a clearer route forward: a stronger in-house restaurant concept, a smarter lease opportunity, better use of underperforming spaces and practical ways to improve profitability without overcomplicating the operation.

It challenged the hotel to see its F&B differently.

The address was already strong.

The footfall was already there.

The opportunity was making every space earn its place.

For Hilton Dresden, the next chapter was not about adding more.

It was about making sharper decisions.

Listen to our podcast episode explaining our market research process.