You want to book a hotel that one of your friends recommended to you for a family holiday at the seaside. Write a letter to the hotel manager to make arrangements. In your letter: - explain what accommodation you require and when you want to stay - ask what will be included in the price - enquire about activities and places of interest near the hotel
Sample Response
Dear Manager,
I am writing this letter to enquire about booking rooms at your hotel for a family of twelve members, including four children. One of my friends who stayed in your hotel last month had a really good and memorable stayhad a really good stay and memorable experience and spoke highly of the hotel to usshared the good reviews with us, especially about the quality of the services and the excellent hospitality of the helpful staffservices offered and excellent hospitality with co-operative staff members. We are expecting to book four air-conditioned semi-deluxe roomsair conditioner semi-deluxe rooms that can comfortably accommodate all twelve of usaccommodate me and the three couples and have a good seaside viewand preferably with the best seaside view. We plan to arrivevisit on 15th October and will likely stay untiltill 17th October.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response clearly explains the proposed dates and room requirements, using a suitably formal tone and some effective descriptive language. However, it is substantially under length, omits the questions about what the price includes and nearby activities or attractions, and ends before completing the letter. The priority is to add fully developed paragraphs for both missing bullet points and finish with an appropriate request and sign-off.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The accommodation and dates are developed, but two required bullet points are completely omitted and the response is well under length.
Ask what the quoted price includes and request information about nearby activities and places of interest before closing the letter.
Coherence and Cohesion
The existing details follow a clear sequence, but one dense paragraph and the abrupt ending leave the response poorly shaped as a complete letter.
Organise the response into separate paragraphs for accommodation, price inclusions, and local attractions, followed by a closing.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient topic vocabulary and some variety, although phrases such as ‘shared the good reviews’ and ‘air conditioner rooms’ are inaccurate.
Improve collocational accuracy by using natural phrases such as ‘recommended the hotel’ and ‘air-conditioned rooms’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses several complex structures with generally clear meaning, despite awkward coordination and occasional word-form or article errors.
Break the longest sentence into controlled units and check noun forms, articles, and modifiers for accuracy.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You want to book a hotel that one of your friends recommended to you for a family holiday at the seaside. Write a letter to the hotel manager to make arrangements. In your letter:
- explain what accommodation you require and when you want to stay
- ask what will be included in the price
- enquire about activities and places of interest near the hotel
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.