You recently organised an all-day meeting for your company, which took place in a local hotel. In their feedback, participants at the meeting said that they liked the hotel, but they were unhappy about the food that was served for lunch. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter: - say what the participants liked about the hotel - explain why they were unhappy about the food - suggest what the manager should do to improve the food in future
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing in connection with the all-day meetingday-long meeting that we organised at your hotel, "The Richmond",hotel - "The Richmond", on 2828th January 2022. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for successfully hosting us, and also express our concern about the food quality, which we expect would be better in the future. Two days ago, I collectedtook feedback from the participants who attendedjoined the meeting. Although they liked the hotel, including its facilities and the helpful service provided by your staffservices of your affable staff, many of them complained about the food we were served. Indeed, some of the menu itemsmenu items that were served during lunchduring the lunch were not properly cooked, and we did not enjoy the taste and aroma of the food. The soup and breadSoup and bread were served cold, and which was disappointingthat was unexpected. The lack of Westernwestern food items on the menu was surprising to some of the participants. I believe you should ensure thattake steps so that all the dishes are cooked properly and served onin time. I also recommend that you add some Westernwestern dishes to your menu. I wish you a good day and hope that you will consider my suggestions. Yours faithfully, Brian Marsh
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter fully balances positive feedback about the hotel's facilities and staff with specific concerns about undercooked dishes, cold soup and bread, and limited menu variety. Its strongest feature is the practical set of recommendations addressing cooking, timing, and additional options. The main limitation is dense single-paragraph presentation and occasional awkward collocation; the priority is to group praise, complaints, and recommendations into focused formal paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three requirements are fully developed with concrete positive feedback, detailed food problems, and directly relevant improvements.
As a final refinement, suggest a quality-control check or advance menu confirmation to make the proposed solution even more actionable.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter follows a clear praise-problem-solution progression, but all content appears in one long paragraph and some sentences repeat serving details.
Use separate paragraphs for the meeting context and positives, the food complaints, and the recommended corrective actions.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is flexible and appropriately formal, though phrases such as 'took feedback', 'during the lunch', and 'served in time' are slightly unnatural.
Use idiomatic expressions such as 'collected feedback', 'at lunch', 'served promptly', and 'menu variety'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are generally accurate and clear, with only occasional article, tense, and punctuation errors.
Refine forms such as 'we expected it to be better', 'some lunch items were undercooked', and punctuation around the hotel name and date.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently organised an all-day meeting for your company, which took place in a local hotel. In their feedback, participants at the meeting said that they liked the hotel, but they were unhappy about the food that was served for lunch. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter:
- say what the participants liked about the hotel
- explain why they were unhappy about the food
- suggest what the manager should do to improve the food in future
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.