Standards
Five-star standards. Independent prices.
The training and standards discipline of London's best hotels, brought to independent restaurants, bars and cafés.
One unannounced audit tells you exactly where your venue is leaving money and standards on the table — and if it doesn't, you get your money back.
Book a Standards Audit — £495 excl. VATThe problem
Independent hospitality is under real pressure
14.2% smaller
UK hospitality is 14.2% smaller than it was in 2020, with around two net closures a day.
20%
In ResDiary's November 2023 survey about hospitality technology in 2024, 20% of operators said they lacked the software they needed and another 17% were unsure.
Risk reversal
The Standards Audit guarantee
"If our audit does not identify improvement opportunities that, quantified from your venue's own data (for example beverage margin gaps, no-show losses, unanswered reviews, unclaimed listings), total at least three times the audit fee in annualised value, the fee is refunded in full. Identified opportunity value is an estimate derived from your data; it is not a promise or guarantee of realised financial outcomes."
What we do
The bundles
The Standards Audit
An unannounced mystery-guest visit scored against an LQA/Forbes-derived checklist, plus a full customer-journey review from Google search to follow-up. Scored report, prioritised gap list, 90-minute debrief.
£495 excl. VAT
Service Excellence & Luxury Preparation
On-site team training in guest journey standards, complaint recovery, and graceful upselling, with a manager enablement layer to hold standards after we leave. Full programme: 2 days on-site, a manager coaching session, and a 30-day follow-up check.
£750/day; £1,650 full programme, excl. VAT
Bar & Beverage Mastery
Modular training — WSET L2 wine service and pairing, practical barista skills, spirits knowledge, and cocktail & mocktail technique — plus beverage margin advice.
£395/module; £1,395 full programme, excl. VAT
Compliance & Process
HACCP-grounded allergen management (Natasha's Law) and food safety training, with a documented SOP build-out for consistent operation once we've left.
£495/training day; £1,250 with SOP build-out, excl. VAT
Smart Operations
An audit of where the venue loses time or money to manual work — reviews, bookings, no-shows, rotas, admin — followed by a sprint to set up and train on the fix, and an optional monthly retainer for ongoing KPI review and standards spot-checks.
£395 audit; £950 implementation sprint; £195–£395/month retainer, excl. VAT
The Full House
The Standards Audit, one training bundle of your choice, the Smart Operations implementation sprint, and the first 3 months of the Smart Operations retainer — bundled together on the terms of each component above. Our most complete engagement, and the best value if you're serious about a full reset.
£2,950 excl. VAT
All prices excl. VAT. VAT is added at the prevailing rate where applicable and itemised separately on our invoice.
Founding offer
The founding-client offer
The first 5 venues to book The Standards Audit get it for £295 excl. VAT (usually £495) — in exchange for a testimonial and a public case study once the work is done. Anonymised case-study options are available if you'd rather not be named.
Claim the founding-client priceHow it works
How it works
1. Book an intro call
Book an audit intro call — 30 minutes, in the booking section below.
2. The unannounced visit
An unannounced mystery-guest visit, scored against our LQA/Forbes-derived, 100-point checklist.
3. The report
Scored report, prioritised gap list, 90-minute debrief.
Who we are
Five-star pedigree, independent-operator practicality
We bring the training, service standards, and operational discipline of London's best hotels — the Savoy, the Corinthia, the world of LQA and Forbes audits — to independent restaurants, bars and cafés, at prices built for independents.
Bogdan leads delivery: luxury hotel operations, restaurant and bar management, WSET L2, HACCP-trained, hands-on with the AI tools most consultancies don't touch. Alongside him, our co-founder, a trained chef with experience inside two of London's five-star houses, shapes the standards and curriculum behind every engagement. Between us: five-star pedigree, independent-operator practicality, and modern systems the big consultancies don't offer.
Free tool
Free 10-point self-check
Score your venue against the same kind of standard five-star hotels hold themselves to — ten items, five minutes, no consultant required. It's a taste of what the full paid Standards Audit looks for, not a substitute for it.
Take the free 10-point self-checkBook
Book a Standards Audit
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Prefer email? Write to hello@salt-and-standard.com and we'll find a time.
Proof
Case studies
First case studies publishing soon — be one of the founding five.