You and your family are planning to spend a weekend at a seaside hotel. Write a letter to the hotel for making the arrangement. In your letter say: - when you will be arriving and leaving - what type of rooms you would like - ask how much the weekend will cost - inquire about activities and places of interest near the hotel
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am planning to spend a weekend with my family at your hotel and would like to request you to make the necessary arrangements for us. My wife and my daughter will accompany me and I hope you can arrange a large deluxe room for us from 14th July to 16th July. I am hoping that you would inform me of the availability of the room with a few other details at your earliest. We will be arriving on Thursday, 14th July at around 3:00 pm. We will spend the weekend and will check-out from the hotel on Saturday- 17th July, before 11.30 am. Please make sure that the room has a balcony, attached bathroom and air cooler and offers a sea view. Not to mention, the room should be large and adequately furnished. Kindly let me know the cost of spending the weekend at your hotel for the mentioned dates. Also, advise if you have any weekend package for the families. We will be visiting the place for the first time, so I would appreciate it if you could inform us about the places worth visiting. Thank you in advance. Yours faithfully, Mansoor Rahim
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use natural request form Original: request Suggested revision: ask Why it matters: “Ask someone to do something” is the natural structure here.
- 2. Complete fixed phrase Original: at your earliest Suggested revision: at your earliest convenience Why it matters: The formal expression requires the noun “convenience.”
- 3. Format the time Original: 11.30 am Suggested revision: 11:30 a.m. Why it matters: This matches the time format used elsewhere in the letter.
- 4. Use hotel term Original: attached bathroom Suggested revision: en-suite bathroom Why it matters: This is the conventional term for a bathroom connected to the room.
- 5. Use formal addition Original: Not to mention Suggested revision: In addition Why it matters: This suits the polite formal register of a hotel enquiry.
- 6. Use precise reference Original: mentioned Suggested revision: specified Why it matters: “Specified” refers clearly to the dates already provided.
- 7. Use natural package phrase Original: weekend package for the families Suggested revision: family weekend packages Why it matters: The compact noun phrase correctly refers to packages designed for families.
- 8. Sentence rewrite Original: We will spend the weekend and will check-out from the hotel on Saturday- 17th July, before 11.30 am. Suggested revision: We will spend the weekend and check out on Saturday, 16th July, before 11:30 a.m. Why it matters: The departure date must agree with the requested 14th–16th July stay and “check out” is not hyphenated as a verb.
- 9. Ask about activities Suggested revision: Add a direct enquiry about activities available at or near the hotel, not only places to visit. Why it matters: The prompt separately requires information about activities and nearby attractions.
- 10. Use letter paragraphs Suggested revision: Separate the booking dates, room requirements, cost enquiry, local-information request, and sign-off into clear paragraphs. Why it matters: The current single block makes the practical requests harder to scan.
Suggested Rewrites
- request ask
- at your earliest at your earliest convenience
- 11.30 am 11:30 a.m.
- attached bathroom en-suite bathroom
- Not to mention In addition
- mentioned specified
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter communicates the booking purpose clearly, maintains a polite formal tone and gives useful room, cost and sightseeing requests. Its main limitation is incomplete and inconsistent task detail: the requested stay is first stated as 14-16 July but departure is later given as 17 July, and nearby activities are not requested alongside places of interest. Prioritize consistent travel dates and explicit coverage of every requested enquiry.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose, room preferences, cost question and sightseeing enquiry are clear, but the dates conflict and the requested activities enquiry is missing.
Give one consistent arrival-and-departure range and ask specifically about both local activities and places of interest.
Coherence and Cohesion
The requests follow a sensible sequence and are easy to understand, though the single dense paragraph limits grouping.
Use separate paragraphs for dates and room needs, prices and packages, and local activities and attractions.
Lexical Resource
A good range of polite booking vocabulary communicates the accommodation requirements effectively, with only occasional awkward expressions.
Use natural phrases such as 'at your earliest convenience' and 'family weekend packages'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Most sentences are accurate and varied, although minor issues with modality, punctuation and noun phrases remain.
Use consistent request forms and standard punctuation for dates, times and the verb 'check out'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You and your family are planning to spend a weekend at a seaside hotel. Write a letter to the hotel for making the arrangement. In your letter say:
- when you will be arriving and leaving
- what type of rooms you would like
- ask how much the weekend will cost
- inquire about activities and places of interest near the hotel
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.