Cooks says beach breaks and skiing holidays remain popular

The deal comes as Cooks posted an operating loss in the two months to December of 106.8m euros ($156m; �79.2m), 27% less than the year before.

Cooks wants a bigger part of the web bookings market, which has surged at the expense of package holidays.

Hotels4u lists 30,000 properties and has more than 500,000 customers a year.

'Confident future'

Cooks merged last year with MyTravel, and cut 2,800 jobs as part of huge cost-saving plans to offset high fuel costs and steep competition.

Europe's second biggest holiday firm now says that bookings for both winter ski trips and summer beach breaks remain strong.

"The board continues to look to the future with confidence. In the short term, we are encouraged by the business's performance since the year end and ongoing current trading," said Thomas Cook in a statement.

It also said that it had seen "significant year-on-year improvements" in the UK and Continental Europe tour business mainly achieved through cost savings from the integration of MyTravel.

The combined company is 52%-owned by German retail chain KarstadtQuelle, which was the parent of Thomas Cook, and 48%-owned by the shareholders of MyTravel.

Egham-based Hotels4u.com acts as an online booking agent for hotels, apartments and villas.

Its founder and managing director Haim Perry will remain with the business and will reinvest some of the proceeds of the sale.