InterContinental has now added logos to some of its sites, such as accommodations.info, discounthotelreservations.co.uk and hotel-deals.com, but insisted it was always clear they owned them.

A spokeswoman for ABTA said the association had not been looking to force the chain to make radical changes, but had simply wanted to point out the scope for confusion in having such sites.

'We have been having fairly friendly negotiations with them. We just wanted to point out that some of the sites could be misleading', she added.

A spokeswoman for InterContinental said holidaymakers often looked for hotels by destination or rate rather than brand so it made sense to have such sites.

But she stressed: 'We think they are clear and always have been clear. We have been operating them for a long time now and have never had any complaints.'