BSI, one of the leading hotel booking agencies in Europe, has bought rival agency International Reservations for an undisclosed sum.
BSI said the takeover of the Nottingham-based company would establish it as the UK's "largest specialist agency."
International Reservations, among the top 50 agencies in Britain, did event management as well as managing bookings for accommodation and conferences, often for smaller companies.
BSI said the purchase underlined its commitment to the SME market.
Lynne Marshall, founder and managing director of International Reservations, will stay on as a consultant.
Charles Cockell, group managing director at BSI said: "This is an important step for BSI as we continue to grow, and firmly establishes our offer to smaller companies in particular.
"International Reservations is a strong business, and with the buying power of BSI and additional services for clients such as our BSI Direct online booking tool, the company has real potential to expand."
CWT grows in Germany
Carlson Wagonlit Travel had a 22.6% growth in revenue in 2005 in Germany to €726m, compared with €592m in 2004. Carlson said the expansion was mainly based on winning new business, including accounts for Neukunden, the Europäischen Zentralbank, Lilly Deutschland and Ritter Sport. Its existing business also rose by 7.4%.
During the year, transactions rose by 16.3% from 1.69m to 1.96m.
Online booking also rose by 7% from 11.5% of all bookings in 2004 to 12.3% of all bookings in 2005.
But the company reported that bookings of low cost, despite the availability of the CWT Webfares software, were "very slight" rising from 1.5% of all air bookings in 2004 to 2.3% in 2005.