Wander rents out luxury vacation homes. Most of those homes are run by property managers, who keep their bookings, prices, and calendars in a property management system, or PMS. For a home to appear on Wander, Wander’s platform has to be linked to that software, and someone has to log in and switch the link on. Until that happens, the home can’t be booked and Wander earns nothing from it. Deck now does that step for every new property manager, in seconds.
That one step used to mean logging in to the PMS, digging through its settings, and copying an API key back by hand. Now it happens inside Wander’s signup flow. The property manager signs in once, and a Deck agent switches on the integration for all of their properties and sends the key to Wander. On Guesty, it takes about 22 seconds. Wander went from contract to production in 17 days.
Wander only earns when a home is live
Wander is a luxury vacation rental platform. Property managers list their homes on it, and almost all of them already run their business in a property management system like Guesty, Hostaway, or OwnerRez. Availability, pricing, and listing details all come from there, so before a single home can go live, Wander needs that property management system connected.
Which makes the connection worth a lot. Across roughly 2,000 units, Wander’s annual GMV depends on those PMS connections. When a connection fails, that home doesn’t reach the marketplace. For Wander, connection rate is supply conversion rate.
So Wander didn’t put Deck in a back-office queue. It put it right in the signup flow.
“Putting a third party in our signup flow was a big call. We made it because this is the step that decides whether a property manager’s homes ever reach the marketplace.”
John Andrew Entwistle, Founder and CEO, Wander
Connecting a property management system used to be a manual job
The PMS was built for people to click through, and the setting Wander needs is buried in it. A property manager, or someone on Wander’s team helping them, had to log in, find the integration settings, turn on the Wander connection for each property, and paste an API key or account ID back into Wander.
Every PMS hides that setting somewhere different. Logins differ too: some ask for an MFA code, some email a one-time login link. Anyone who got stuck along the way didn’t finish signing up.
None of the alternatives held up at Wander’s scale, with thousands of connections planned. Walking each property manager through their PMS meant one guide per system and a lot of support. Doing it for them meant Wander’s team handling PMS passwords and hiring as the marketplace grew. Building an API integration per PMS wasn’t an option either, since most PMSs don’t expose this setting through an API. A few offer OAuth, and Wander uses it where they do. The rest still need someone to log in and flip the switch.
How Deck connects a property management system to Wander
Wander embeds Deck’s Auth Component in its own signup flow, so property managers connect their PMS without leaving Wander or giving Wander their password.
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Sign in
The property manager picks their PMS and signs in with email and password, or with Google if the PMS supports it.
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Verify
If the PMS asks for an MFA code or emails a login link, the Auth Component asks for it in the same prompt. As soon as the credentials are accepted, the property manager moves on with onboarding.
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Enable
In the background, the agent opens the PMS’s integration settings and turns on the Wander connection for every property.
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Return
The agent sends the API key or account ID back to Wander. If the PMS was already connected, it returns the existing account ID.
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Go live
Wander starts pulling the listings. Each property manager only goes through this once.
Nobody waits on a slow property management system
Wander built onboarding so the only part that has to happen live is the sign-in. Once Deck confirms the credentials work, the property manager carries on, and the agent does the rest in the background.
That takes the pressure off getting every run right the first time. If a run fails, Deck can try again with the same credentials, hand it to a fallback agent, and hold on to the session, so the property manager isn’t asked to sign in twice.
It’s a pattern any platform onboarding supply could copy: check the credentials up front, then let the agent finish on its own time.
From contract to production in 17 days
Emailed login links
Some PMS accounts send a one-time login link instead of a code. Deck trained the agent and the Auth Component to ask property managers to paste the link into the prompt, with the same wording on every PMS that works this way. Deck also worked directly with Hostaway’s product team on its sign-in flow.
Sign in with Google
A lot of failed connections came down to a mistyped password or an MFA step left unfinished. Deck added Sign in with Google to the Auth Component on October 16. Three days later, Wander’s first Google sign-in on Guesty connected on the first try.
Errors that say what’s wrong
When a connection can’t go through, the agent passes on the PMS’s own reason, like a Guesty account that doesn’t have full listing access. Wander can then tell the property manager exactly what to change.
PMSs that don’t follow the usual pattern
Some of the PMSs Wander needs most are also the least standard. Track gives each property manager their own login address. Try the generic login page and every password comes back invalid, including correct ones, so the connection rate ends up blaming property managers for something that isn’t their fault. For Track, the agent signs in at each property manager’s own login address. Wander needs the PMSs its property managers actually use covered, and those aren’t always the easy ones.
Wander’s own wording
Wander writes its own copy for each PMS in the Auth Component’s source configuration, and it overrides Deck’s defaults. To the property manager, it’s Wander’s onboarding the whole way through.
Tracking every failure
Failed runs used to look random: a PMS tweaks its login screen, an MFA step times out, someone types the wrong password. Deck now logs every failed run, sends an alert every 30 minutes, and splits failures into the ones Deck needs to fix and the ones on the user’s side. Those numbers are what the Monday call goes through.
John Andrew Entwistle’s view is that the failures kept happening because nobody was tracking them, not because they couldn’t be fixed.
What changed for Wander
Property managers connect their PMS in one sign-in, inside Wander’s signup flow, and keep going. Nobody on either side opens a PMS settings page, and the step that turns a sign-up into bookable supply no longer needs Wander’s team.
Reliability is measured end to end, and the Monday review continues until it clears 95%. Sign in with Google is chipping away at the user-side failures that are left.
“A failed connection isn’t an integration bug for us. It’s a home that never gets booked.”
John Andrew Entwistle, Founder and CEO, Wander
On Guesty, a connection takes about 22 seconds by Wander’s own measurement. Wander’s team never sees a property manager’s PMS password, only the API key or account ID it needs. And each new PMS means training another agent workflow rather than taking on another integration to build and maintain. Five are live today.
| Before Deck | With Deck | |
|---|---|---|
| Who connects the PMS | Property manager or Wander’s team, by hand | Deck agent, after one sign-in |
| Where it happens | Inside each PMS’s settings | Inside Wander’s signup flow |
| Property manager waits on the PMS | Yes, until setup is done | Only until credentials are accepted |
| MFA and login links | Different on every PMS | One consistent prompt |
| PMS passwords | Sometimes shared with Wander’s team | Never shared with Wander |
| Failed connections | Hard to spot | Tracked, sorted, and reviewed weekly |
| Adding a new PMS | New walkthrough, more support | New Deck agent workflow |
Which property management systems Deck connects for Wander
| PMS | Sign-in | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Guesty | Email and password, or Sign in with Google | Live |
| OwnerRez | Email and password | Live |
| Rentals United | Email and password, or Sign in with Google | Live |
| Hostaway | Email and password, plus MFA | Live |
| Streamline | Email and password, multi-step | Live |
| Track | Partner-specific login domain | Coming next |
What’s next
The near-term work is reliability: reruns with the same credentials and fallback agents, so a failed run can finish without anyone stepping in. After that comes more PMS coverage, starting with Track, which Wander is configuring now. Volume should climb as Wander ramps up marketing to property managers.
Wander is also exploring ongoing data checks, where agents regularly compare a property manager’s PMS data, listings, pricing, amenities, and images, with what’s live on Wander and flag anything that’s drifted.
Wander’s setup isn’t unique to vacation rentals. Restaurants run on POS systems, freight carriers on TMSs, staffing agencies on credentialing portals. Any marketplace whose supply lives in someone else’s software has a step like this one.
Frequently asked questions
What does Deck do for Wander?
Deck connects each new property manager’s PMS to Wander during signup. The property manager signs in once through Deck’s Auth Component, embedded in Wander’s flow. A Deck agent then switches on the Wander connection for all of their properties and returns the API key or account ID to Wander.
Why does a PMS connection matter so much to a vacation rental marketplace?
A property manager’s homes can’t go live until their PMS is connected. For Wander, connection rate is supply conversion rate.
Does the property manager have to wait while Deck connects their PMS?
No. Once the credentials are accepted, the property manager moves on with onboarding, and the Deck agent finishes the setup in the background.
Can Deck handle MFA and emailed login links?
Yes. If the PMS asks for an MFA code or emails a one-time login link, the Auth Component asks the property manager for it in the same prompt, and the agent continues from there.
Does Wander see property managers’ PMS passwords?
No. Property managers sign in through Deck’s Auth Component. Wander only receives the API key or account ID it needs.
How long does a PMS connection take with Deck?
On Guesty, about 22 seconds from sign-in to API key, by Wander’s own measurement.
Which property management systems does Deck connect for Wander?
Guesty, OwnerRez, Rentals United, Hostaway, and Streamline are live, with Track coming next.
How long did it take Wander to go live with Deck?
17 days, from contract start on September 1, 2026 to production on September 18.
Is property management system setup costing you supply?
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