General Training Writing Task 1 · semi-formal · complaint

Letter to meeting organizer regarding unsatisfactory hotel accommodation

You Have a Complaint About the Hotel You Stayed at While Attending a Meeting that The Organizer of A Company Meeting Booked.

Write a Letter to The Organizer of The Meeting and Include. In your letter:

details About the Meeting
the Problem You Face
what Should Be Done?

Write at least 150 words. You do not need to write any addresses. Begin your letter: Dear ...,

Band 8 sample letter

Dear Mr. Henderson,

I am writing to share my feedback regarding the accommodation provided during the regional marketing summit held in Manchester last week, which your office kindly arranged.

While the meeting itself was highly productive and well-structured, the experience at the Grand Plaza Hotel was far from satisfactory. My room was situated directly above the hotel’s nightclub, resulting in excessive noise that persisted until 3:00 am each morning. Consequently, I struggled to get adequate rest, which significantly impacted my ability to remain focused during the final day of presentations.

Furthermore, the room’s air conditioning unit was faulty, causing the temperature to remain stiflingly hot throughout my stay. Despite reporting these issues to the front desk on two separate occasions, no action was taken to resolve the noise disturbance or repair the cooling system.

Given that this was a company-sponsored event, I believe it is important to bring this to your attention so that future bookings can be made with more reliable establishments. I would appreciate it if you could raise these concerns with the hotel management to ensure that other colleagues do not face similar difficulties.

Best regards,

Jonathan Miller

191 words. Names and details are invented; write your own.

Why this scores well

A Band 8 response fully addresses all three bullet points with a clear, consistent semi-formal tone and logical paragraph structure. The most common mistake for Band 6 candidates is failing to link the hotel experience back to the meeting, or using overly aggressive, unprofessional language that compromises the semi-formal tone.

Write to someone you know but not closely, such as a manager, landlord or neighbour, using their title and surname.
Polite and friendly at once: a few contractions are fine, slang is not. Close with Yours sincerely or Kind regards.
State the purpose in the first two sentences; small talk costs words you need for the bullets.

Useful phrases from the letter

unsatisfactory: not good enough or not meeting expected standards
stiflingly: uncomfortably hot and difficult to breathe
excessive: much more than is reasonable or necessary
persisted: continued to happen for a long time
faulty: not working correctly or having defects
established: a business or institution that is well-known

Write your own and get a band

Answer this prompt in a timed General Training writing test and get a band for task achievement, coherence, vocabulary and grammar, with the sentences to fix.

Practise IELTS General writing

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Frequently asked questions

Is this letter formal or informal?

Semi-formal. Write to someone you know but not closely, such as a manager, landlord or neighbour, using their title and surname.

How long should an IELTS General Training letter be?

At least 150 words, and 160 to 200 is the comfortable range. Spend about 20 minutes on it and leave 40 for Task 2, which carries twice the marks.