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. Correct collocation Original: took Suggested revision: booked Why it matters: A customer books or purchases a package rather than takes one.
- 2. Use past tense Original: has provided Suggested revision: provided Why it matters: The completed holiday calls for the simple past tense.
- 3. Correct request form Original: am hoping that you would refund Suggested revision: hope that you will refund Why it matters: The revised verb forms make the present request grammatically consistent.
- 4. Add possessive determiner Original: failed to keep promises Suggested revision: failed to keep its promises Why it matters: The plural noun needs a determiner identifying whose promises were broken.
- 5. Remove repetitive opening Original: In relation to the package I opted for, I booked Suggested revision: I booked Why it matters: The introductory phrase repeats information already expressed by the main clause.
- 6. Form compound adjective Original: a fortnight tour package Suggested revision: a fortnight-long tour Why it matters: A hyphenated compound adjective is needed before the noun.
- 7. Hyphenate compound adjective Original: top class Suggested revision: top-class Why it matters: The compound modifier requires a hyphen before the noun.
- 8. Correct travel term Original: two-way fight Suggested revision: round-trip flight Why it matters: The original contains a spelling error and does not use the standard term for return air travel.
- 9. Correct inversion Original: Not only the flight was delayed for four hours but Suggested revision: Not only was the flight delayed for four hours, but Why it matters: A clause beginning with 'not only' requires subject-auxiliary inversion and a comma before the paired clause.
- 10. Use precise adjective Original: below standard Suggested revision: substandard Why it matters: The adjective expresses the low quality more precisely and concisely.
- 11. Use concise wording Original: noise issues round the clock Suggested revision: constant noise Why it matters: This phrase states the complaint more directly.
- 12. Avoid repeated noun Original: the meals were tasteless and I had to pay for the meals Suggested revision: the meals were tasteless, and I had to pay for them Why it matters: A pronoun removes unnecessary repetition and the comma clarifies the joined clauses.
Suggested Rewrites
- took booked
- has provided provided
- am hoping that you would refund hope that you will refund
- failed to keep promises failed to keep its promises
- In relation to the package I opted for, I booked I booked
- a fortnight tour package a fortnight-long tour
Why this response received Band 7.0
The complaint is purposeful and convincing, with specific service failures and an unambiguous request for a partial refund. Its impact is reduced by the single-block organisation and several noticeable language slips, including faulty inversion, a missing object, and awkward collocations. Prioritise paragraphing the complaint by function and editing complex sentences for grammatical accuracy and idiomatic phrasing.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter fully covers the holiday problems, expresses dissatisfaction forcefully, and makes a specific, justified compensation request in an appropriate formal register.
Streamline repeated background about booking the package so the complaint focuses even more directly on the promised services and failures.
Coherence and Cohesion
The content progresses logically from booking details to problems and the requested remedy, but the lack of paragraph breaks and some repetition weaken organisation.
Separate the opening purpose, service failures, and refund demand into distinct paragraphs and reduce repeated uses of "package" and "company".
Lexical Resource
The response shows good range for a formal complaint, but errors such as "two-way fight" and "the package I opted in" reduce lexical precision.
Proofread key complaint vocabulary and use accurate collocations such as "return flight" and "the package I opted for".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of complex structures is attempted successfully, though several errors remain noticeable without preventing understanding.
Correct structures such as "Not only was the flight delayed" and "If I do not hear from you", and review article and preposition choices.
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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.