One of the world’s largest hotel groups, InterContinental, has come under fire for running a number of websites that attempt to pose as independent travel agents.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) criticised the group for the ‘misleading’ websites, which at first seem to have nothing to do with the hotel chain.

As visitors enter the internet sites, they are able to choose a city they would like to visit. But, rather than offering a comprehensive search of all the city’s hotels, only those owned by the InterContinental group come up.

Francis Tuke, spokesperson for ABTA, said: “We have spoken to InterContinental about the sites and we believe they are taking our criticism seriously.

“The group has now begun adding banners on the sites, stating that the search engines are provided and run by the hotel group, rather than an independent travel agency.”

The news comes soon after InterContinental announced its intentions to force independent agencies to sign an agreement that would make it more difficult for third party sites to undercut the price of rooms published on its own website.

InterContinental, which owns 3,500 hotels, has recently celebrated its first year of independent operation since splitting from Six Continents.

The most recent addition to its portfolio is a management contract for the 104-room Al Khobar hotel in Saudi-Arabia, that was signed last weekend.