Reservest was founded by chief executive Tarleton Hepburn during the pandemic after he and his business partners discovered the process of booking luxury villas can “be incredibly tedious” for the trade.
Reservest is currently in the process of reaching out to UK consortia ahead of its official launch “in the next few weeks”. Around 600 agencies globally, of which 250 are UK based, are now visiting the Reservest website.
Bond, who spent nearly 11 years at Global Travel Group, joined Reservest at the start of the year as director of commercial partnerships. After leaving Global, where he was head of membership and development, Bond went on to launch his own video editing outfit, Bounce Back Media, to help agents with marketing support, and has also worked for food delivery firm Deliveroo.
At Reservest, Bond is responsible for all commercial deals “from individual agent agreements to large consortia and host agencies as well as insurance and compliance”.
Bond revealed Reservest has already agreed commercial partnerships with several membership organisations and consortia, including Protected Trust Services and Travel Centres Ireland, as well as luxury agency groups like Global Travel Collection and Little Emperors.
“We have just this week signed an agreement to supply ultra-luxury villas to one of the UK’s leading luxury online travel agents, which will be announced soon,” added Bond.
Asked how his industry experience will help him at Reservest, Bond said: “I had previously worked for two accommodation providers and my 11 years at Global Travel Group was invaluable, giving me huge insight into consortia and agent partnerships plus I also had responsibilities in the sales and development side of Triton Rooms [now Yalago].
"I’ve also connected with former colleagues at Triton and now have partnership deals in place as well as reconnecting with former Global colleagues, some of whom are spread around the world in various travel roles.”
Reservest will distribute products from the likes of One & Only and Mandarin Oriental to boutique brands such as the More Family Collection, Samujana Villas and Reschio Estate.
Bond added: “I share the vision that Tarleton and Reservest has, that the luxury villa booking process can be made easier by using technology to solve the frustrations that consultants face when trying to book multi-room villas, suites and residences.”
