You booked a two-week holiday to Sydney with a tour agency. You were unhappy because the flight was delayed, the hotel was noisy, and there were other problems. Write to the tour agency. In your letter: - give details of the problems with the holiday - complain about the holiday - request compensation or a refund
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I took a tour package you offered and travelled to Sydney on 25th July. I was looking forward to an exciting tour but was disappointed with the quality of service your company has provided. I am hoping that you would refund half of the amount I paid as compensation as your company failed to keep promises. In relation to the package I opted for, I booked a holiday package to Sydney and it was a fortnight tour package. I paid $1600 in cash and was promised a top class two-way fight, three-star hotel accommodation, tour guide, transportation and meals. I was promised a dream vacation but everything went wrong. Not only the flight was delayed for four hours but the hotel, which was arranged for us, was below standard with low-quality service and noise issues round the clock. The bus tour was also cancelled for no apparent reason. Moreover, the meals were tasteless and I had to pay for the meals despite the meal inclusive package I opted in. This is unacceptable. As a solution, and since your company did not respect the commitments it made to us, I expect a 50% refund from your company for all the charges that I had paid in advance. If I do not hear from in within the next seven days, I will file a formal complaint to the Consumer Rights Authority against your company with regards to false claims. I hope to have prompt action on my complaint and expect a refund soon. Yours faithfully, Mubashir Noorani
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use book collocation Original: took Suggested revision: booked Why it matters: A customer books or purchases a holiday package rather than takes one.
- 2. Use formal date style Original: 25th Suggested revision: 25 Why it matters: In formal British English, dates are normally written without the ordinal ending.
- 3. Use past tense Original: service your company has provided Suggested revision: service your company provided Why it matters: The service belongs to a completed holiday, so the simple past is appropriate.
- 4. Use concise package reference Original: In relation to the package I opted for Suggested revision: Regarding the package I booked Why it matters: This introduces the booking details directly and uses the natural verb for purchasing a holiday.
- 5. Use compound duration Original: a fortnight tour package Suggested revision: a two-week tour package Why it matters: A duration used before a noun takes the singular compound form 'two-week'.
- 6. Correct flight description Original: top class two-way fight Suggested revision: top-class return flight Why it matters: This fixes the spelling error and uses the standard term for travel in both directions.
- 7. Hyphenate compound modifier Original: meal inclusive package Suggested revision: meal-inclusive package Why it matters: The compound adjective before 'package' requires a hyphen.
- 8. Use direct causal link Original: As a solution, and since Suggested revision: Because Why it matters: The single conjunction connects the company's failures directly to the refund request.
- 9. Use honour collocation Original: did not respect the commitments Suggested revision: failed to honour the commitments Why it matters: Companies honour or fail to honour commitments rather than respect them in this context.
- 10. Use simple past Original: charges that I had paid Suggested revision: charges I paid Why it matters: The simple past is sufficient, and the relative pronoun is unnecessary.
- 11. Add missing object Original: hear from in Suggested revision: hear from you within Why it matters: The phrase needs the object 'you', and 'within' introduces the response period.
- 12. Use complaint preposition Original: to Suggested revision: with Why it matters: A formal complaint is filed with an authority.
Suggested Rewrites
- took booked
- 25th 25
- service your company has provided service your company provided
- In relation to the package I opted for Regarding the package I booked
- a fortnight tour package a two-week tour package
- top class two-way fight top-class return flight
Why this response received Band 7.0
The complaint is persuasive because it gives specific evidence about the delayed flight, poor hotel, cancelled tour, meals, and requested refund while maintaining a suitably firm tone. The main limitation is recurring language inaccuracy, including faulty clause patterns and awkward collocations, alongside a single-block presentation. Prioritise a careful grammar and wording edit, then group the background, complaints, and remedy into separate paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter fully develops the problems, conveys a clear complaint, and makes a specific, appropriately firm request for compensation.
Retain the strong factual support while making the final requested outcome and response deadline even more concise.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas follow a clear sequence from booking details through the service failures to the requested remedy, although some opening information is repetitive.
Use separate paragraphs for the booking context, the problems, and the compensation request, and remove repeated references to the tour package.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a sufficiently varied formal complaint vocabulary, but errors such as ‘two-way fight’, ‘meal inclusive package’, and ‘prompt action on my complaint’ reduce precision.
Proofread for word choice and collocation, using expressions such as ‘return flights’, ‘meal-inclusive package’, and ‘prompt action regarding my complaint’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex sentences communicates the message clearly, but grammatical slips recur in inversion, prepositions, and clause construction.
Correct structures such as ‘Not only was the flight delayed’ and ‘If I do not hear from you’ to improve grammatical control.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You booked a two-week holiday to Sydney with a tour agency. You were unhappy because the flight was delayed, the hotel was noisy, and there were other problems. Write to the tour agency. In your letter:
- give details of the problems with the holiday
- complain about the holiday
- request compensation or a refund
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.