You recently stayed in a hotel in a large city. The weather was very unusual for the time of year and the heating/cooling system in the hotel was quite inadequate. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter: - give details of what was wrong - explain what you had to do to overcome the problem at the time - say what action you would like the manager to take
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to informwriting this letter in order to inform you about a problem I experienced at your hotelsome issues at your hotel which I had to deal with. My name is Peter Moore, and I stayed at your hotel on 27 and 28 Aprilon the 27th and 28th of April. My room number was 231I believe that I stayed in room number 231. AlthoughAnyway, while the room looked nice, I was dissatisfied withI am afraid that I wasn’t really very happy with the cooling system of your hotel. I understandNow, I understand that it was a bit unusual for the time of the year to be so hot, but I still expected the hotel's cooling system to be up to standardit was also expected that the cooling system of your hotel was up to the standard to keep the room cool in the unusually hot weatheroffset the effect of that unusually hot weather. Of course, I tried adjusting the air-conditioning controlstried to play with the AC remote to make the room coolermake myself feel cool and comfortable, but without successluck was not with me. So, I finally had to take several showerstake a shower several times to cool downcool my body down. Because of the heatDue to this, I could hardly sleep at night! Anyway, I guess, I have made my point already. So, I would like to ask you to checkrequest you to please check your heating and cooling system more regularly to make sure that it remains in good working orderthey are in perfect working condition at all times. Yours faithfully, Peter Moore
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter clearly identifies the failed cooling system, explains the unsuccessful attempt to adjust it and the repeated showers taken for relief, and requests regular maintenance. Its strongest feature is complete, specific task coverage. The main limitation is register: phrases such as 'luck was not with me' and 'I guess I have made my point' sound overly conversational for a hotel manager. Prioritise a calm, professional complaint tone.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are clearly developed with relevant dates, a room number, the impact of the fault, and a requested action.
Request a prompt inspection of room 231 and written confirmation of the repair, using a consistently courteous professional tone.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter follows a logical sequence from stay details to the problem, attempted solution, consequences, and requested action.
Use separate paragraphs for the incident, the steps taken, and the remedy, and reduce repeated discourse markers such as 'Anyway' and 'So'.
Lexical Resource
There is adequate range for describing the complaint, but several informal or awkward expressions weaken precision and register.
Use 'adjusted the air-conditioning controls', 'the room remained uncomfortably hot', and 'I was unable to sleep'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied structures communicate the complaint clearly, though pronoun agreement, modality, punctuation, and some phrasing are inconsistently controlled.
Use forms such as 'I expected the system to cope with the heat' and 'ensure that it remains in full working order'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently stayed in a hotel in a large city. The weather was very unusual for the time of year and the heating/cooling system in the hotel was quite inadequate. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter:
- give details of what was wrong
- explain what you had to do to overcome the problem at the time
- say what action you would like the manager to take
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.