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, Two months ago I booked a tour package from your agency and travelled to Sydney on 23rd July. I23rd July I was excited when I booked the tour but very disappointed to find that your agency did not keep its promises. I am hoping you will investigate the matterprobe the issue and refund me the $780 that I had to spendspent personally due to the mismanagement by your employees. Regarding the package I chose,In relation to the specifics of the package I opted in, I booked the exclusive two-week-long tour package to Sydney on May 12th and paid $2800 in cash. I am attaching a copy of my receipt and confirmation slip with this letter. The package includedincludes a fortnight-long toura fortnight tour to Sydney includinginclusive of round-triproundtrip flights, four-star hotel accommodation, tour guides, breakfasts, sightseeing tours and a few other recreational activities. The issue with the tour is that we did not get the services we were promised. The departure flight your agency booked waswere delayed by almost three hoursfor almost 3 hours and landed at a different airport from the one promisedthan assured. On top of that, we were taken to a two-star hotel and the quality of its service was below the expected standardbelow standard. I did not pay for a two-star hotel and want an explanation of this mismanagement and misrepresentationfalse claim. As a solution, and because I do not want to start a legal fight if you are willing to take action, I am hoping that you will agree to refund me the $780 that I was forced to spend. If I do not hear back from you regarding this matterin regards to this within a week, I will be forced to take legal actionactions, which I would prefer to avoid if you cooperatewhich by all means I would like to avoid with your cooperation. Thank you for your attention to this matterThank you for giving the matter your attention and I hope to hear from youhear your reply soon. Yours faithfully, Wesley Phillip
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter’s strongest aspect is its detailed, forceful account of the booking, service failures, and requested refund, supported by dates, costs, and promised inclusions. Its main limitation is incomplete alignment with the prompt: the noisy hotel is not mentioned, and the basis of the $780 expense remains unclear. The highest priority is to cover every stated problem explicitly and connect each requested amount to a specific loss before tightening language accuracy.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The complaint, service problems, and refund request are clearly developed, but the specified hotel noise is omitted and the unexplained $780 weakens the compensation case.
Mention the noisy hotel directly and itemise what the additional $780 paid for so the requested remedy is fully justified.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information progresses logically from booking details to failures and resolution, although the single-block format and some repetition make the long letter less efficient.
Group the booking background, problems, and requested remedy into separate paragraphs and remove duplicated statements about the desired refund.
Lexical Resource
The response shows a good range of complaint and travel vocabulary, but awkward collocations such as ‘package I opted in’, ‘false claim’, and ‘legal actions’ reduce precision.
Use natural formal collocations such as ‘package I selected’, ‘misrepresentation’, and ‘legal action’, while avoiding repetitive wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A variety of complex forms is attempted and meaning remains clear, but recurring errors include a run-on sentence, ‘had to spent’, and subject-verb disagreement in ‘flight ... were delayed’.
Proofread verb forms, agreement, and sentence boundaries, especially in the opening and in clauses with singular subjects.
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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.