Lotus will maintain its name and continue to operate from its offices in London Bridge.

W founder and global chief executive Warren Johnson will join the Lotus board, as will managing director Richard Tompkins.

The deal will broaden W’s travel expertise and extend its service into marketing, representation and consultancy. Its clients, which range from Hard Rock Hotel (London) to Club Med in Asia, will gain greater access to travel business intelligence and insight.

Meanwhile, Lotus clients will benefit from W’s creative input.

The deal will allow the Lotus team, founder and chief executive Sarah Johnson and board directors Jules Ugo and Kate McWilliams, to embark on their ambitious growth plans and build a full-service travel offering as part of the wider W UK and global businesses.

“Sarah, Jules and Kate have built an incredible business with an enviable client roster and enormous potential,” said Warren Johnson.

“The W team and I are looking forward to working to take the business to the next level. It is another demonstration of the intent of our business to seek out acquisitions that enable us to further grow W beyond the confines of organic growth and continue to build out best in class sector expertise.”

Sarah Johnson added: “Since our initial meeting with Warren and the W team, the opportunity this partnership presented was clear.

“W have outstanding creative credentials, three wins at the recent PR Week Awards, seven Lions at this year’s Cannes Festival of Creativity and multiple Sabre Awards - no travel marketing company is in this space.

“Travel is a resilient industry showing growth at a time when many sectors are not, we can’t wait to start this new era.”