F&T Intelligence · AI Search Report
thecoachmarlow.co.uk
AI Search dimension · May 2026 · Delivered by Friction & Toil
What this report measures: your structural citation probability across Google, Bing (the index that powers ChatGPT search and ChatGPT browse mode), and Brave (the index that powers Anthropic Claude search and Perplexity). This is a snapshot of readiness, not live AI output drift. For ongoing tracking of how your Maturity Rung moves over time, see the F&T Annual Intelligence Plan (£2,500/yr).
AI Visibility Maturity Curve
Recommended
AI Share of Voice: 13 / 18 cells across Google · Bing · Brave (6 queries × 3 engines)
Add Restaurant + FAQPage schema markup to the homepage and lunch/dinner menu page — the only missing citation factor across all 18 cells, and the fix that converts Bing's single passing cell into five. Yoast SEO (already installed) includes a built-in schema module. ~3 hours.
Google · Gemini
6 / 6
Powers Google AI Overviews, Gemini
Bing · ChatGPT
1 / 6
Powers ChatGPT search + ChatGPT browse
Brave · Claude
6 / 6
Powers Claude search + Perplexity supplement
Blocked
Invisible
Emerging
Cited
Recommended
Notable finding: Bing gap (1/6). The Coach scores 6/6 on Google and Brave but only 1/6 on Bing. On five of six queries, Bing returns unrelated results — a known tokenisation failure in hospitality verticals where multi-word queries ("The Coach Marlow reviews", "Michelin star restaurant Marlow", "best gastropub Buckinghamshire") trigger dictionary entries, tyre-company pages, or fashion-brand results instead of the restaurant. This is not a brand visibility failure — it is a structural Bing limitation. The remedy is literal-phrase H2s, exact-match keyword titles, and Restaurant schema markup on key pages, which give Bing the structured signals it needs to resolve ambiguous queries. ChatGPT search and ChatGPT browse mode run on Bing's index: 1/6 Bing means most ChatGPT users searching category queries cannot find The Coach.
Six target queries × three engines — who surfaces, and why
Query Google Bing Brave
Q1 · The Coach Marlow
Branded
Likely Cited
4/5 factors · Site ranks #1, Brad Cacela named in snippet
Likely Cited
4/5 factors · Site ranks #1; branded lookup passes tokenisation
Likely Cited
4/5 factors · Site #1 + knowledge infobox card surfaced
Q2 · The Coach Marlow reviews
Branded with intent
Possible
3/5 factors · TripAdvisor, Andy Hayler, London Unattached, Good Food Guide all cite The Coach
Unlikely
0/5 factors · Bing tokenisation failure — "Coach" returns fashion brand + transport results. Engine-specific finding, not a brand gap.
Possible
3/5 factors · Andy Hayler, London Unattached, TripAdvisor (×2), Truffle Threads, Harald on Food — brand dominates. Note: some older reviews still reference Sarah Hayward as Head Chef — AI narrative gap.
Q3 · Michelin star restaurant Marlow
Commercial non-brand
Possible
3/5 factors · Hand & Flowers #1; thecoachmarlow.co.uk #3; Michelin Guide also features
Unlikely
0/5 factors · Bing tokenisation failure — "Michelin" returns Michelin Tyre Company results. Engine-specific finding.
Possible
3/5 factors · Site at #4; Daily Mail names The Coach "UK's cheapest Michelin star restaurant"
Q4 · Best gastropub Buckinghamshire
Commercial superlative
Possible
3/5 factors · AI summary names The Coach; Top50Gastropubs lists The Coach in Buckinghamshire
Unlikely
0/5 factors · Bing tokenisation failure — "best" triggers dictionary definitions from Cambridge, Merriam-Webster, Oxford.
Possible
3/5 factors · Top50Gastropubs #3 lists The Coach directly; Buckinghamshire Live also names The Coach
Q5 · Gastropub private dining Marlow
Use-case
Possible
3/5 factors · The Coach named as option with semi-private dining room; Hand & Flowers The Shed dominant
Unlikely
0/5 factors · Returns London/generic gastropub results — Marlow not localised; The Coach absent from top 10
Possible
3/5 factors · The Coach at #7; Hand & Flowers and The Oarsman (privatediningrooms.co.uk) dominate private dining citations
Q6 · Where can I eat Michelin starred food in Marlow?
Question-format
Likely Cited
4/5 factors · Google AI Overview triggered; The Coach named directly with "Michelin-starred plates in a more casual setting"
Unlikely
0/5 factors · Bing tokenisation failure — "where can I" triggers modal-verb dictionaries from Cambridge, Collins, Merriam-Webster.
Likely Cited
4/5 factors · My Marlow, Michelin Guide, Premier Inn all name The Coach for this Marlow Michelin query

Each cell shows the citation-factor verdict (Likely Cited / Possible / Unlikely) and how many of the 5 structural factors the relevant page meets. Scores are assessed against documented AI citation factors based on structural and content signals. Live prompt testing against ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity is available as a retainer add-on (see F&T Annual Intelligence Plan).

The publishers that control your AI reputation in hospitality
Host AI citation frequency Your presence
guide.michelin.com High Active
One-star listing confirmed; 2026 MICHELIN Guide listing live with inspector note
tripadvisor.co.uk High Active
1,834 reviews, rated 4.1/5, ranked #16 of 73 in Marlow — strong review count and update cadence
top50gastropubs.com High Active
Listed in Buckinghamshire; named Highest New Entry 2016 in Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs
thegoodfoodguide.co.uk High Active
Review present; Good Food Guide is a key AI citation source for UK restaurant category queries
reddit.com Medium Mentioned
r/fryup post references The Coach (£16.50 breakfast dish); no sustained community thread activity detected. Brave's index favours Reddit for "best gastropub" queries — an occasional organic mention is a free signal worth encouraging.

These are the external sources AI engines pull from when answering category queries in your sector. Presence on high-frequency hosts is the fastest lever to move up the Maturity Curve. If you work with a PR agency, share this table with them — it is their placement brief.

Can AI compare you head-to-head when asked?

Bake-Off Partial (1/3 checks pass)

Check 1 (pricing extractable): Pass — menu prices from £6.50 to £38.00 and package prices (£665, £995) are all in HTML text and extractable by AI.

Check 2 (feature data structured): Fail — menu items and package inclusions are in prose paragraphs, not table or structured list elements that AI can parse as key/value feature data.

Check 3 (comparison claims supported): Fail — no factual differentiators vs competitors are cited. Copy is descriptive ("seasonal", "inventive") without named comparative claims.

Note: bake-off readiness is lower-applicability in hospitality. Price is not the primary comparison axis — occasion, atmosphere, and Michelin reputation are. This finding is a medium-priority structural note, not the top lever.

Can AI engines read your site?

Fully open

robots.txt is generated by Yoast SEO with a global User-agent: * and an empty Disallow directive — all AI bots are permitted without restriction. Confirmed bots allowed: GPTBot (ChatGPT training and search index), ClaudeBot (Anthropic Claude training and search), anthropic-ai (legacy Claude crawler alias), OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT search and browse mode), PerplexityBot (Perplexity AI answers), GoogleOther (Gemini and Google AI training), CCBot (Common Crawl, which feeds most third-party LLMs). No per-bot restrictions detected. Sitemap correctly referenced at https://thecoachmarlow.co.uk/sitemap_index.xml.

Are you visible across the AI search substrate, not just Google?

Partial

Bingbot and Bravebot are both allowed per robots.txt — no indexation blocks. IndexNow protocol was not detected in response headers or at common key paths. Bing Webmaster Tools verification cannot be confirmed externally — the site is assumed unverified pending direct check. The Yoast SEO sitemap is in place, which is a positive substrate signal, but active Bing Webmaster verification and IndexNow would ensure new content (head-chef story, seasonal menu updates) reaches ChatGPT search and ChatGPT browse mode without waiting for organic crawl cycles.

Standard recommendations

1. Verify in Bing Webmaster Tools — bing.com/webmasters. Submit the existing Yoast sitemap. Bing's index powers ChatGPT search and ChatGPT browse mode. Invisible on Bing means invisible to most ChatGPT users live-querying for category terms. ~30 min.

2. Implement IndexNow — generate a key, host at /<key>.txt, ping the endpoint on every publish. One API call notifies Bing + Yandex + Seznam + Naver instantly. Without it, seasonal menu changes and chef announcements wait days for crawl. ~1 hour.

Brave note: No webmaster tools exist for Brave. Bravebot is allowed per robots.txt — this is the only controllable surface. Brave's index is otherwise fed by the Web Discovery Project (passive opt-in via Brave-browser users) plus a Bing-licensed fallback for sparse queries.

Head chef transition is an unresolved AI narrative gap

Brad Cacela vs Sarah Hayward — AI citations are split

The Coach's About page correctly names Brad Cacela as Head Chef (previously Senior Sous Chef at The Hand & Flowers for 8+ years). However, several review sources appearing in the top 10 for "The Coach Marlow reviews" still reference Sarah Hayward as the name associated with the kitchen. Search result snippets from AI-facing review platforms continue to carry the older attribution, which means ChatGPT and Claude answers to "who is the chef at The Coach Marlow?" may give an outdated response.

The fix is not on the website — it is a PR and structured-data push. Publishing a blog post or press release naming Brad Cacela as Head Chef, getting it indexed and cited by the review platforms that dominate Q2 results (Good Food Guide, TripAdvisor editorial, Morning Advertiser), and adding a named-chef Person schema to the About page would close this gap within one crawl cycle. Estimated effort: one PR pitch + 1 hour schema work.

Your next move
Add Restaurant + FAQPage schema to close the Bing gap
Schema markup (Restaurant structured data) is the single citation factor missing across all 18 cells — every other factor (named authority, fact density, external citations) is already strong. Adding Restaurant schema to the homepage and lunch/dinner page, plus FAQPage markup to the FAQs page, gives Bing the structured signals it needs to resolve ambiguous queries and surface The Coach on non-branded searches. It also strengthens Google AI Overviews and Brave answer-box extraction. Yoast SEO (already installed and active per the Yoast-generated sitemap) includes a built-in schema module — enabling Restaurant schema requires selecting the correct post type and filling in operating hours, price range, and cuisine type. Approximate effort: 3 hours.

Find out what the ChatGPT gap is costing The Coach

The Bing gap (1/6) means most ChatGPT users searching category terms can't find you. For a Michelin-starred venue with The Coach's profile, that gap typically costs £20,000–£55,000/yr in foregone bookings — a modelled estimate (×0.7–1.4 envelope). The full report calculates your specific figure.

It also adds Design, Brand, Competitive position, and Growth — with three competitor deep-dives and a prioritised action plan.

Your £250 credit toward the full report:

AI-SEARCH-UPGRADE

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This is a public audit, not a commissioned report

The Coach Marlow was scanned as part of F&T's hospitality avatar research — independent and unsolicited. All findings are sourced from publicly available data: search results, review platforms, and AI assistant responses checked natively.