Wander

Wander operates and rents out fully managed vacation homes that combine luxury hotel quality with private-home comfort, backed by 24/7 concierge service and its own booking app.

Wander is a lodging company that operates and rents out fully managed vacation homes, combining luxury hotel quality with the comfort of a private home. The company owns the operating model end to end: 100% of the homes on its platform are directly operated by Wander, rather than listed by third-party hosts. Properties feature meticulous cleaning, views, ultra fast WiFi, gyms and pools, and stays are supported by 24/7 concierge service.

The company's stated mission is to help people find their happy place by building the infrastructure to experience the world, targeting a lodging industry it sizes at $2 trillion. Wander positions the customer experience - not the app or the inventory - as its product, and describes itself as rejecting common industry practices such as unhelpful automated customer service and misleading marketing. Homes are designed to blend work and play.

Technical work at Wander spans consumer mobile app development, hospitality operations technology and WiFi/connectivity infrastructure. The Wander app serves as the booking and stay-experience platform for the homes, which the company treats as a means of delivering the experience rather than the core product. Wander can be found at wander.com.