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 Sir or Madam,
I am writing this letter to you because your hotel was recommended to me for my family's holidayfor the holidays of my family by one of my close friends who visited your hotel a month agowho has visited your hotel a month ago. I am hoping to get some information so that I can book our stay there.
My friendMy friend, who has recommended the hotel to me, told me a lot of good things about your hotel, especially about the quality of service and pricesprice that are offered. As for my accommodation requirements,But, as far as I am concerned, I would prefer a large suite of at least two rooms that can comfortably accommodate me, my husband, my mother and two of my teenage children.
I am planning to visit during the weekend, and I also understand that the price is a little higher during that time. However, while I am not overly concernednot too much concerned about the price of the hotel, I would certainly appreciate it if you could tell me about the services and amenities – such as Wi-Fi internet service and airport shuttle service - that come with it. Besides, information regarding what activities are available therewhat kind of activities we can enjoy there, as well as which places of interest are nearbywhat kinds of interesting places are there to visit nearby - would also be highly appreciated.
Yours faithfully,
Emily Blunt
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter maintains an appropriately courteous tone, presents its purpose clearly, and addresses all three requested areas with relevant detail. Its main limitation is that the proposed timing remains vague and several phrases are awkward or grammatically inaccurate. The highest-priority improvement is to supply exact stay dates while editing embedded questions, agreement, and collocations for greater precision.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear, the formal register is suitable, and all bullet points are covered, although the timing is insufficiently specific.
Give exact arrival and departure dates and make the enquiries about nearby activities and attractions more specific.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information is organised into logical paragraphs, and cohesive devices guide the reader clearly despite some repetition.
Reduce repeated references to the friend's recommendation and link the accommodation and booking details more economically.
Lexical Resource
A sufficiently flexible vocabulary communicates the request precisely, though several collocations sound unnatural.
Replace awkward phrases such as 'holidays of my family' and 'not too much concerned' with more natural formal wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A variety of complex structures is used with generally good control, but agreement, tense, and embedded-question errors remain.
Check tense choice, subject-verb agreement, and statement word order in indirect questions before finalising the letter.
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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.