Hotel F&B strategy and market research: Your questions answered.

A restaurant on a floor plan is easy to draw. Giving people a reason to fill it takes more thought. Before deciding what the space should look like, you need to understand who will use it, why they will choose it and what the business needs it to deliver. 

Auden Hospitality is a hotel food and beverage consultancy working with owners, developers, brands and operators. Our strategy and market research work helps turn evidence about the market, the guest and the hotel into a clear direction for investment, concept development and operations. 

Here are the questions we hear about finding the opportunity and building a hotel F&B strategy that gives every decision a reason. 

Hotel food and beverage strategy defines who each restaurant, bar, café, lounge or social space is for, what role it plays in the hotel and how it needs to perform commercially. 

At Auden, this is where we start. Before the concept. Before the moodboard. Before someone decides the hotel “needs a brasserie” because every other hotel has one. 

Good strategy gives every decision a reason. It connects what guests want with what the hotel can deliver and what the business needs to earn. Without that thinking, you can end up with a pretty room and no real idea who it is for. 

Market research helps hotels understand what guests are already choosing, where competition is strong and where a credible opportunity exists for a new or improved F&B offer. 

Without it, hotel F&B gets built on assumptions. A trend someone liked. A concept that worked somewhere else. A menu that sounds good in a meeting but has no clear guest, no local relevance and no commercial logic. 

An apparent gap is only useful if enough people want what is missing. At Auden, we use research and data to test that opportunity before developing the answer. 

A hotel F&B strategy should cover the market, target guests, competitors, outlet roles, positioning, operational requirements and commercial feasibility, with clear recommendations for what happens next. 

Depending on the project, Auden’s work can include market research, guest profiling, competitor analysis, F&B masterplanning, aspirational benchmarks and financial modelling. The scope should match the decisions you need to make. 

The real test is simpler. Who is it for? Why would they choose it? What job does it do for the hotel? How does it make money? Can the team deliver it consistently, every time? 

If the strategy does not answer those questions, it is just a document.

Auden uses local market and consumer data to understand who the opportunity is for, where those guests already spend time and what behaviour is shaping demand. 

We create a profile around your hotel, looking at the restaurants, bars, cafés and social spaces your target guests already visit. Depending on the market, available sources and agreed scope, that can include audience profiles, age groups, distance travelled, visit frequency and lifestyle segmentation such as CAMEO profiling. 

We interpret that evidence alongside competitor research, the hotel’s own trading information where available and operational experience. We look at what the data covers, how recent it is and where it leaves questions unanswered. 

The point is better evidence, sharper thinking and fewer expensive assumptions. 

Bring in a hotel F&B strategy consultant before layouts, outlet mix, investment and concept decisions become fixed. 

Before the restaurant is drawn in the wrong place. Before the kitchen cannot support the offer. Before a concept is chosen because it sounds good in theory. 

Early F&B strategy can shape guest flow, zoning, design briefing, operational requirements and commercial planning. It gives the wider team a clear direction to work towards. 

You might only need a market review, early strategic direction or feasibility work at first. The point is to get the right thinking at the right time, while there is still room to act on it. 

F&B strategy identifies and tests the opportunity. Concept development turns that direction into a specific restaurant, bar, café or social experience. 

Strategy asks who it is for, what the market needs, what role the space plays in the hotel and how it needs to perform. It also considers what the operation can realistically deliver. 

Concept development builds on those answers through the food, drink, story, service style, guest journey, tone of voice and design brief. 

The name, logo and moodboard matter. They become far more useful when the thinking underneath gives them something clear to express. 

No. Auden works on new hotel openings, existing hotels and renovations. 

For new openings, we help shape the strategy before decisions on layouts, outlet mix, guest flow, concept direction and investment become difficult to change. 

For existing hotels, we look at where the opportunity sits now. That might mean reviewing the current offer, testing local demand, sharpening outlet positioning or giving the team a clearer commercial plan. 

We do not force every hotel through the same process. Strategy should meet the moment, not slow it down. 

F&B masterplanning defines the role of each food and beverage space and how the spaces work together across the hotel. 

It considers the occasions you want to serve, the guests you want to attract, opening hours, capacity, location, guest flow and the operational support each outlet needs. A lobby café, restaurant and bar should have clear roles, even where they share a kitchen or serve the same guests. 

At Auden, we use this thinking to shape an outlet mix that fits the market and the hotel. Adding another outlet is only useful if it serves a credible purpose and the operation can support it. 

Yes. Auden can provide financial feasibility and modelling as part of an agreed hotel F&B strategy scope. 

We test the assumptions behind the opportunity. That can include forecast covers, spend per head, opening hours, revenue by occasion, space productivity and staffing considerations. The model should reflect how the venue will actually trade. 

It should also show what happens if demand or spend falls short, or operating costs rise. Owners need to understand what has to be true for the idea to work and where the biggest risks sit. 

A forecast supports an investment decision. It does not guarantee a result. 

Measure a hotel F&B strategy against the role and commercial objectives agreed for each outlet, using a clear starting position and regular reviews. 

Relevant measures can include resident conversion, local trade, covers by occasion, average spend, repeat visits, revenue and profit contribution after delivery costs. Guest feedback and team observations help explain why performance is changing. 

A restaurant intended to attract local dinner guests needs different measures from a lounge supporting resident service throughout the day. Agree what success looks like before launch or repositioning, then use trading evidence to adjust the plan. 

The strategy earns its place when it helps the team make better decisions and the hotel can see what those decisions deliver. 

Before committing to another outlet, a refurbishment or a new concept, get clear on the opportunity you are trying to serve. 

At Auden, we help you understand the market, test the assumptions and decide what your hotel F&B should do next. 

Tell us about your hotel, the decisions ahead and what needs to work harder. Let’s find the opportunity.