As the internet took off, Evans was involved in ventures selling rooms online before founding Lowcosttravel group in 2004.
For example, Hotels.com was recently selling rooms at Campton Place, a hotel in San Francisco's Union Square, for $219.95 a night.
The elegant Parc Beaux Arts Hotel in Luxembourg was selling rooms in July of that summer for as little as £111, while the rate for this month is £269 – a rise of 142 per cent.
Wyndham's Martineau Bay Resort and Spa on Vieques, an island off Puerto Rico, is selling rooms for $150 a night, including breakfast each day and one free massage -- a saving of 50percentt.
"We are in the business of selling rooms," said a former manager of the Mayflower, speaking on the condition of anonymity as he searches for another job in the clubby world of fancy hotels.
"Every Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target, Walgreen, Genovese, Pathmark and Waldbaum's sells room air-conditioners, which is what I sell," said Howard S. Lupowitz, who bought the business when the owner retired eight years ago.
In other words, bathrooms sell rooms.
(The chains will continue to sell rooms through other Web sites, analysts said).
The suggestion is that Expedia and Booking.com reached separate agreement with IHG not to sell rooms on their sites below a certain rate.
Such clashes are not uncommon at hotels that sell rooms to vacationers but are primarily business hotels, catering to conferences and training events.
