Children will be able to play on Xboxes and use a photo-booth in the Beaches area, while the Weddings zone will feature a dining table where different wedding themes can be set up. The Island Routes desk, promoting the Sandals-owned excursions operator, will provide more general information about destinations and activities within the Caribbean and highlight the work of Sandals’ charitable arm, the Sandals Foundation.

“We sent our design team to the Caribbean and they came back particularly inspired by the subdued colours and natural materials of our newest resorts in Grenada and Barbados,” Thompson said.

A water feature with real running water will be inspired by the balcony hot-tubs found in-resort, while a bar area will showcase the resorts’ food and beverage offering.

“We won’t have a licence to sell alcohol, but we’ll serve refreshments and wines from our Robert Mondavi range, and some rum punch of course,” Thompson confirmed. With a 3.8m-wide store frontage on Fulham Road, a five-minute walk from South Kensington underground station, the new shop will count Ralph Lauren Kids and high-end interior design stores as its neighbours.

“We know the affluent demographic in Chelsea and Kensington is right for us, but there’s also a significant amount of people living within a 13-minute commute,” said Thompson. “We also think we’ll see a lot of tourists visiting London from elsewhere in the UK or overseas, who might go back home and book a holiday as a result of what they’ve experienced.”

Training venue

Exact opening hours are still to be confirmed, following analysis of footfall on the street, but the store will open seven days a week.

It is expected to open on March 1, with launch events and marketing activity in the local area and at nearby train and underground stations.

Sandals also hopes to host evening trade events at the store and to welcome travel agent partners for immersive training sessions in the 16-person meeting room.

“This year we’ve sent more than 500 agents on fam trip visits to our resorts, and fams will always be at the front of our training programme, but our new store gives us another avenue for educating agents,” Thompson said.

He reassured agents that opening a retail store does not herald any change in strategy for Sandals in the UK.

“We’ve been taking bookings in our UK call centre for 20 years, so having a retail arm is not a new direction for us, we’re just taking it to the high street,” he said. 

“There’ll be no undercutting of what customers can get through other channels, and we expect the store will provide an education for consumers that our trade partners can benefit from.

“We’re a phenomenal 50% up compared with two years ago, out of the UK, and agent partners have performed massively for us. We are absolutely not intending to grow our own retail sales at the expense of other channels,” he insisted.

*Also read: "We are not setting up a chain"