John Lewis sleepover
Now you can stay overnight at £2million luxury in-store flat where everything, from bed linen to your champagne glass, is for sale
IF you’ve ever found yourself in a department store wavering over whether to buy a dinner service or a duvet cover, John Lewis may just have the answer.
To provide what it calls the ultimate try-before-you-buy experience, a handful of lucky shoppers will be able to stay overnight in The Residence, a £2million in-store apartment.
Kitted out completely in the upmarket store’s products, from crockery to soft furnishings, the apartment in the flagship Oxford Street shop has a view over exclusive Cavendish Square.
All the store’s shoppers can walk through the opulent rooms during the day, browsing luxurious furnishings on offer, from £3,000 sofas to £2,000 mattresses, TVs disguised as works of art, gold-leaf table lamps, designer rugs and duckdown pillows.
But on four Saturday nights in the run-up to Christmas, some lucky shoppers will be able to stay there, drinking champagne served by The Residence’s concierge, Vicenzo Maxia.
Customers who want the select sleepover – which is completely free – are chosen randomly from all those who apply to the store.
The sleepover includes private use of The Residence from 6.30pm until 9am the next day, a meal from one of the store’s restaurants, and the choice of either 60 minutes of after-hours private shopping with a personal shopper, or a behind-the-scenes tour.
Guests can also fill in a checklist of John Lewis products they would like to see in the apartment.
Billed as the first ever in- store apartment, there is a luxury living and dining area with a fullystocked drinks cabinet, a bedroom with wardrobes full of new clothes to try on and even a fitted kitchen with matching wine cooler. Food – either a fine Italian pasta dish, a Lebanese tagine, mixed grill or a burger with all the trimmings – can be enjoyed at an impressively laid dining table. Pre-dinner drinks can be sipped on an indoor terrace amid orange trees grown in the nursery at the company’s Hampshire estate. The opulent bedroom has purple walls with matching bedding. No children allowed, of course. In the morning, the guests will receive a newspaper, a Waitrose breakfast basket and fresh coffee to be enjoyed in bed. The idea is to move beyond selling beds, three-piece suites and wardrobes to promoting a whole John Lewis lifestyle. The firm hopes those who spend a night in the apartment will be tempted to splash out on any furniture and other howewares they admired during their stay. But there is no hard sell – all the price tags on the products have been discreetly removed. Unfortunately, there is no lavatory or shower, either. Guests who need to spend a penny will have to use the store’s staff loos. Similar apartments will be available for sleepovers at stores in Cambridge and Liverpool. Peter Cross, the firm’s director of customer experience, said: ‘We want our customers to discover an altogether different way of shopping. By encouraging them to bounce up and down on a bed or sitting around a dressed dining table, we are aiming to create an environment which is as close as possible to customers’ homes.’ John Lewis claims The Residence would be worth £2million on the property market thanks to its location and opulence. In addition to the sleepovers, once a week at The Residence in Oxford Street, customers will be able to apply to host a free dream dinner party for up to ten people. A chef will prepare and serve a special menu with guests able to request their favourite cocktail to be shaken or stirred by a mixologist. At the Liverpool and Cambridge stores, customers can apply to host brunches for six guests.