Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-11-05

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

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

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am Kartik Sharma, Regional Manager at Scopes Cosmetics Inc. We recently organised our annual review meeting at your hotel on October 9. I am writing this letter to thank you for having us and arranging an successful event. All my colleagues were impressed by your service especially the welcoming arrangements. Moreover, the staff was quite generous and serving.

However, there are some suggestion which we would like to recommend. The food was not satisifying. It didnot taste fresh and was cold. It was either frozen or re-cooked. We even mentioned this to your servers. Upon requesting, we were offered another buffet which we had. This was very disappointing.

Therefore, I request you to keep a strict check on your kitchen staff and adopt some constructive measures to improve the food quality. It would be highly advisable to get your kitchen sanitised which reduces any chances of contamination if possible.

I would be thankful to you and hope to see some good measures that improve your guest experience.

Yours Sincerely

Kartik Sharma

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The letter addresses all three required points and maintains an appropriate formal purpose. You identify positive features, including the “welcoming arrangements” and helpful staff, explain that lunch was cold and did not taste fresh, and recommend closer kitchen checks and improved food quality. The complaint is clear, and mentioning that you raised the issue with servers adds useful context. However, the positive feedback is brief, and the proposed remedies are not fully developed: “keep a strict check” is general, while sanitising the kitchen does not directly explain how food freshness or temperature would be improved. To strengthen the response, give a specific practical suggestion, such as checking serving temperatures or reviewing food preparation and storage procedures.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The letter is organised in a clear sequence: introduction and praise, explanation of the problem, recommendations, and a courteous closing. Paragraphing supports this progression, and linking expressions such as “Moreover,” “However,” and “Therefore” help signal shifts between ideas. The account of the second buffet also follows logically from the initial complaint. Some connections could be more precise, however. “There are some suggestion which we would like to recommend” introduces the complaint as though it were a set of suggestions, and “This was very disappointing” could refer either to the replacement buffet or the overall experience. Use clearer transitions and references so each sentence’s relationship to the previous point is unmistakable.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for a formal complaint, including “annual review meeting,” “impressed,” “disappointing,” and “contamination.” These choices communicate the main points, and the tone is generally suitable. There are also some inaccurate or unnatural word choices and collocations: “generous and serving” does not clearly describe the staff, “another buffet which we had” is awkward, and “constructive measures” is vague in this context. Spelling errors such as “satisifying” and “didnot” also reduce accuracy. Aim for more precise expressions that describe service and food quality naturally, and proofread spelling carefully; for example, specify that staff were attentive and that the replacement buffet was also unsatisfactory.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response includes a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, such as “Upon requesting, we were offered another buffet” and the relative clause in “which reduces any chances of contamination.” Most meaning remains clear, and the letter uses past and present forms to describe the event and make recommendations. Some grammatical errors persist, including “an successful event” (article agreement), “there are some suggestion” (plural agreement), and “which reduces” after the plural noun “measures.” The final sentence, “hope to see some good measures that improve your guest experience,” also has an unclear grammatical relationship between the measures and the improvement. Review articles, singular/plural agreement, and clause construction, then check punctuation and sentence boundaries.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.