A letter of complaint to a hotel
A full General Training Writing Task 1 letter, written online against the clock, self-assessed against the four criteria, and shown beside the Band 7.5+ model letter I wrote for it.
How to use this. Write the letter in the box below in about twenty minutes, at least 150 words, as in the real test. Cover all three bullet points and hold a consistent register throughout. When you've finished, open Self-assessment to mark your own work against the four criteria and read the Band 7.5+ model letter I wrote for it. You can download a copy to keep. For a person to mark your writing against the criteria, the first lesson includes a full assessment. New to the letter? Start with the GT Writing: the letter guide, then come back and write one.
Write the letter.
Recommended 20 minutes · at least 150 words
You recently stayed at a hotel for a short business trip and were unhappy with the service you received. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter:
- explain why you were staying at the hotel
- describe the problems you experienced
- say what you would like the manager to do
Write at least 150 words. You do not need to write any addresses. Begin your letter Dear Sir or Madam,
Mark your own work.
Be honest with yourself against the four criteria, the same four an examiner uses on the letter. Then read the model letter and see exactly what a Band 7.5+ answer does.
Task Achievement
Coherence & Cohesion
Lexical Resource
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The model letter I wrote for this task
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the service I received during a recent stay at your hotel, where I had booked a double room from 3 to 5 June for a short business trip.
Although my reservation had been confirmed by email, on arrival I was informed that no record of it could be found, and I was kept waiting at reception for over an hour before a room was eventually made available. The room itself then fell well below the standard advertised: the air conditioning did not work, and despite two requests to housekeeping, it was never repaired during my stay.
Given the considerable inconvenience this caused, and the disruption to my meetings, I would be grateful if you could arrange a partial refund of the cost of the room. I would also appreciate an assurance that the booking and maintenance failures I have described will be looked into, so that future guests are not affected in the same way.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
[Your name]
Why it scores. A consistently formal register from greeting to sign-off, all three bullets covered and developed rather than merely listed (why you were there, what went wrong, what you want), natural functional exponents (I am writing to express my dissatisfaction, I would be grateful if you could, I look forward to hearing from you), and varied sentence structure with controlled punctuation. Yours faithfully is correct because the recipient is unnamed.
Where a letter like this usually loses marks. Slipping register (a casual Hi or Thanks a lot), covering only two of the three bullets, dropping below 150 words, or pairing Dear Sir or Madam with Yours sincerely. Fix those first.
This is a model letter I wrote for this task, not a marked student submission. For a person to mark a letter of yours against the four criteria, the first lesson is a full assessment.
Take your work with you.
Download your letter alongside the model, so you can revise it later or bring it to a lesson.
First time writing a letter? Work through the GT Writing: the letter guide, then write this one against the clock.
Send a task. Get it back marked.
A model shows you the target. It can’t tell you why your own letter sits below it.
Write the letter above and send it to me. I’ll mark it in detail against the four assessment criteria and return it to you annotated, line by line, so you can see exactly where the band is sitting and what is holding it down. Written work is handled this way around the lessons, sent over and returned marked between sessions, which keeps the fifty minutes themselves free for speaking. The first lesson is a full assessment. Regular lessons are £20 for fifty minutes, one to one, in proper British English.