What areas does BoldCX cover?

BoldCX is based in East Grinstead, West Sussex and works in person across Sussex, Surrey and Kent, with remote consultancy available UK-wide. Clients include boutique hotels, country pubs, restaurants, cafés, spas and small multi-site groups.

Rusty Lloyd is a UK guest experience and brand consultant, keynote speaker, and founder of BoldCX & BrandVibe, with more than 30 years in hospitality including owning and running his own venues.

Guest Experience & Brand Consultant UK

The hidden cost

Your guests have already noticed.

41% of guests say service quality is falling, yet spend per head on group trips is up 42.8% since 2022. Guests have more money than ever for great experiences, and less patience than ever for average ones. Every week without a clear guest experience quietly costs you:

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Guests who slip away after one visit and never come back, without ever complaining.

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Money left on the table from the dessert, the coffee, the second round that never gets offered.

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Five-star experiences that never become five-star reviews.

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Good staff worn down by systems that don't quite work, on wages that have never cost you more.

You're paying more per hour than ever. You deserve to see it land with your guests.

Imagine instead

A venue people choose, and come back to.

Here's what changes when the guest experience is right:

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More revenue

Higher spend and more repeat visits from the guests you already have.

♥

More loyalty

Guests who come back, leave glowing reviews, and bring their friends.

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A brand people remember

A look and voice that's unmistakably yours, so you stand out and stay chosen.

Your guide

I've stood on both sides of the till.

Rusty Lloyd, founder of BoldCX & BrandVibe

30+ Years

I know how it feels to pour everything into a venue and still watch money slip quietly through the gaps. I've been there, and I know how good it feels to fix it.

It started at fourteen, with a fold-out table and an urn, a weekend tea and coffee stand for the local footballers. From there I cut my teeth in the leisure industry, owned and managed my own service and hospitality businesses, and spent three decades training teams and rebuilding how venues treat the people who walk through the door.

That experience became two sister brands. BoldCX fixes how your venue works for its guests. BrandVibe shapes how it feels. No theory, no 80-slide decks. Just an honest outside eye, a scored report in 72 hours, and changes you can act on this week.

The changes were so simple we almost laughed, but they turned a quiet Tuesday into a busy one.The Skimmington Castle

The plan

Find it. Fix it. Prove it.

1

Find it

I experience your venue as an undercover guest, from booking to goodbye. You get a scored report with photo evidence and a prioritised fix list within 72 hours.

2

Fix it

A half-day in-person training session with your team, built on exactly what the Review found. Your real weak spots, not generic scripts.

3

Prove it

Thirty days later I come back, re-check, and show you the before-and-after scores. Numbers you can share with your team and see in your reviews.

Service is the new status symbol.

Book a Guest Experience Review

What I offer

Two brands, one mission: venues guests choose and come back to.

Boutique hotels, country pubs, restaurants, cafés, spas and small groups of 2–10 sites. If your business lives on guests, reviews and repeat visits, this is for you. The Guest Experience Review is where most start; it's the front door to everything below.

BoldCX

Guest experience & growth: how your venue works.

Guest Experience ReviewThe flagship: undercover, scored, photographed, in your hands in 72 hours.
Guest Experience SnapshotThe starting point: one visit, your top five findings. Priced on application.
Guest journey mappingSee every step the way your guests do.
Review & reputation strategyTurn happy guests into five-star proof.
Loyalty & retentionMake the second visit, and the tenth, far more likely.

Training & Teams

Skills & standards: how your people deliver.

Team Training DayFirst impressions, difficult guests, service recovery. In person, practical, role-played.
Service Standards PlaybookYour SOPs, written so staff actually use them, and every new hire starts at the standard.
Bold Life mindset moduleConfidence under pressure for stretched teams.
Workshops & away-daysEnergising and practical, never death by slides.

BrandVibe

Brand & identity: how your venue feels.

Brand strategy & positioningGet clear on who you're for and why you win.
Logo & visual identityA look that's unmistakably yours.
Messaging & tone of voiceSay it the way your guests feel it.
Website & online presenceA home that turns lookers into bookers.
Social media & contentShow up consistently, and sound like you.

Keynote Speaking & Events

Three decades of real stories from the front line. Talks and conference sessions on guest experience, culture and growth that land with owners and teams alike. Honest, energising, and built for your audience, never a stock script.

Enquire about speaking

Proof, not promises

Real reviews. Real changes. Real numbers.

Country pub · Surrey

The Skimmington Castle

A much-loved country pub with strong weekend trade and loyal regulars, but quiet midweek nights and an average spend sitting well below its potential. Great food, a warm welcome, and money quietly slipping through the gaps.

What the review found

No consistent dessert or coffee prompt at the end of the meal, the single biggest leak
The specials board invisible from half the dining room
Phone booking enquiries missed during kitchen prep
Strong reviews left unanswered, week after week

What changed

A simple, natural upsell moment built into table service
Specials repositioned where guests actually look
A 60-second routine for capturing midweek bookings
A two-line review-response habit for the whole team

+£3.20average spend per cover

+18%midweek covers

4.6★Google rating, up from 4.3

3 wksto see the difference

More wins across hospitality and beyond

The approach was built for hospitality, and it works anywhere guests deal with people. A few of the results it's delivered:

Café★★★★★

+14% repeat visits

The report was short and brutal in the best way. We actioned half of it the same week.

Owner, high-street café

Barbershop★★★★★

+22% rebookings

I thought I knew my shop inside out. He found three things in an afternoon that I'd walked past for years.

Owner, independent barbershop

Gym★★★★★

+31 members in 6 weeks

Our trial-to-member conversion was leaking everywhere. The fixes were obvious once he pointed them out.

Director, independent gym

Hair salon★★★★★

+£6 average ticket

No hard selling, no scripts, just a better way of offering what clients already wanted. It stuck.

Owner, hair salon

Dental practice★★★★★

5★ reviews doubled

Patients always liked us, they just never said so online. Now they do, and new patients notice.

Practice manager

Estate agent★★★★★

Faster enquiry response

We were losing leads to slow replies and didn't even know it. That alone paid for the review ten times over.

Branch manager

The Independents' Promise

Independent venues are being squeezed harder than at any point in living memory — £3.4bn in new sector costs, 132,000 unfilled roles. I won't pretend a consultant fixes that. But I'll promise this: the Guest Experience Scorecard stays free forever, the Snapshot stays priced for independents, and once a month I run the Independents' Surgery — a free group clinic where any independent operator can bring one problem and leave with an answer.

Simple pricing

Start with a Snapshot. Grow with the Reset. Scale with the Programme.

Fixed prices, no day rates, no scope creep. Every rung credits toward the next, so nothing you spend is ever wasted.

The starting point

Guest Experience Snapshot

Let's talk

priced on application · one undercover visit

One anonymous visit, unannounced
Your top five findings on a single page
30-minute video debrief
Fee credited in full against the Review within 60 days

Book a Snapshot

Guest Experience Review

£750

one-off · report in 72 hours

Full undercover guest journey, booking to goodbye
Every touchpoint scored, nothing off-limits
Photo evidence — see what your guests see
Prioritised fix list: what pays first
Credited in full against the Reset within 30 days

Book a Review

The flagship Find it. Fix it. Prove it.

The Guest Experience Reset

£1,950

fixed price · complete programme

Everything in the Review
Half-day in-person team training built on your results
Bold Life mindset module: confidence under pressure
30-day follow-up spot check
Before/after scores you can share

Book the Reset

For groups 2–10+ sites

The Guest Experience Programme

Let's talk

priced per site, per quarter

A Review of every site
Team training per venue
Group-wide Service Standards Playbook
Quarterly re-checks & site-by-site benchmarks
Direct access to me, not an account manager

Book a call

Also available on their own: Team Training Day £850 · Service Standards Playbook £950 · and the free Guest Experience Scorecard — score your own venue like I would, in ten minutes. Keynote speaking and BrandVibe projects quoted to suit.

Free download

Score your venue like I would.

The Guest Experience Scorecard: ten checkpoints, ten minutes, brutally honest. Most operators score themselves an 8 and discover they're a 5 — that gap is where your lost bookings live.

Questions owners ask

Straight answers.

What is a Guest Experience Review?

An undercover mystery-guest assessment of a hospitality venue. Rusty Lloyd of BoldCX visits as an anonymous guest, experiences the full journey from booking to goodbye, and scores every touchpoint. The venue receives a photographed, prioritised report within 72 hours. It costs £750, credited in full against the Guest Experience Reset within 30 days.

What is the Guest Experience Reset?

BoldCX's flagship fixed-price programme at £1,950: a full Guest Experience Review, a half-day in-person team training session built on the findings, and a 30-day follow-up re-check with before-and-after scores. Find it, fix it, prove it.

What areas do you cover?

BoldCX is based in East Grinstead, West Sussex, and works in person across Sussex, Surrey and Kent — including boutique hotels, country pubs, restaurants, cafés, spas and small multi-site groups. Remote reviews and consultancy are available UK-wide.

Why does guest experience matter right now?

41% of UK guests say service quality is declining, while spend per head on group trips has risen 42.8% since 2022. Structured staff training reduces avoidable service errors by around 26%. Venues that invest in guest experience win the growing premium spend; venues that don't lose guests silently.

Who is Rusty Lloyd?

Rusty Lloyd is a UK guest experience and brand consultant, keynote speaker, and the founder of BoldCX & BrandVibe. He started in hospitality at fourteen, has owned and run his own service businesses, and has spent more than 30 years training front-line teams. Known for a boldly individual personal style — and for the motto "be the reason they remember."

How do I book?

Use the form below, or email rustylloyd@boldcx.co.uk. Every enquiry gets a reply within one working day.

Get started

Tell me about your venue.

A few details and I'll be in touch within a day to see if it's a fit.

Thanks, that's in. I'll be in touch within a day.

Prefer to talk directly? Email rustylloyd@boldcx.co.uk

Be ordinary.
Be the reason they remember.