You have just spent a weekend staying at a Hotel in London. When you get home you find that you have left a bag at the hotel. Write to the hotel manager. In your letter: - introduce yourself - describe the bag and its content that you left there - explain what you want the manager to do about it
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to inform you that I may have left my duffel bag at your hotel before checking outbefore leaving the place. I hope you can arrangeI am hoping that you would arrange to send the bag to the forwarding address belowsend the bag to my address. To help you identify my bookingTo give you some information about me, my name is Howard Jackson, and I stayed at your hotel from 12th to 14th March. I stayed in room 325 on the second floor. I am not sure howNot sure how I forgot to take the bagpick up that bag before leaving for the airport, but by the time I realized that I did not have my duffel bag with me, I was already on my wayvery much on my way to Melbourne. I believe I leftI guess that I have left it under the bedjust below the bed. The missing bag isAbout the bag that I have left, it is a white travel bag withtravel bag, with two blue straps around it, and it has a single carrying handleonly a single belt to hold and carry. It is relatively smallnot a big bag either, and it mostly contains some important personal belongingsstuff, includinglike an expensive hair trimmer (given to me as a gift), a Samsung smartphone and some irreplaceable photographsrare pictures of my nephews and nieces. PleaseSo, please send the bagmail that bag to me as soon as you find it. Yours faithfully, Howard Jackson
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter clearly identifies the guest, gives distinctive details about the missing bag and its contents, and makes the requested action explicit. Its main limitations are the one-block organisation, some informal wording for a hotel manager, and the absence of a delivery address or request for confirmation; prioritise a more professional paragraph structure and provide the practical contact or shipping details needed to return the bag.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are well covered through identifying stay details, a recognisable bag description, valuable contents, and a clear request for return.
Include the postal address or ask the manager to contact you to arrange secure delivery and confirm any shipping charge.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information moves sensibly from the purpose and stay details to the bag description and request, but it is presented in one dense paragraph.
Separate the guest details, circumstances of loss, bag contents, and requested action into short functional paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
The letter uses adequate descriptive vocabulary, though informal words and imprecise item descriptions weaken the professional register.
Replace personal stuff, rare pictures, and a single belt to hold and carry with personal belongings, irreplaceable photographs, and a carrying strap.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of sentence forms keeps meaning clear, but fragments, tense choices, and some overextended clauses reduce accuracy.
Turn Not sure how I forgot into a complete sentence and use I must have left it under the bed for a more accurate deduction.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have just spent a weekend staying at a Hotel in London. When you get home you find that you have left a bag at the hotel. Write to the hotel manager. In your letter:
- introduce yourself
- describe the bag and its content that you left there
- explain what you want the manager to do about it
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.