Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-12

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 6.0)

Dear sir,

I am writing this letter to give some feedback on our visit to your hotel. My staff genuinely liked the hotel and believe they are amused by the catchy lights and traditional wall art, which keep us in touch with our roots and tradition.

However, despite the architecture being so fantabulous, my staff is not satisfied with the food service. Firstly, it took so long to take our orders, secondly, they took so much of time to serve the food on table, lastly there was so much of rush that no one was free to even take our bills

I would like to suggest you to put more staff during rush hours so that it saves your and our time. Not only this but, it will also help you in providing good customer service that will have good reviews for your hotel. It will be ultimately bring more customers.

Best regards,

Priyanka Tiwari

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response successfully covers all three bullet points required in the prompt. You mentioned what the participants liked about the hotel, noting the 'catchy lights and traditional wall art' in your opening paragraph. You explained why they were unhappy with the food, detailing the long waiting times for ordering and serving, as well as the overcrowded conditions at the billing counter. Finally, you offered a clear suggestion for improvement by recommending that management schedule more staff during rush hours. The tone is appropriate for a formal complaint letter, and the purpose is clear throughout the text, earning a solid band score for covering all communicative requirements well.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is generally coherent and follows a logical structure with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the introduction, the main issues, the recommendations, and the sign-off. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'However', 'Firstly', 'secondly', and 'lastly', which help guide the reader through the sequence of events. However, some connections feel slightly mechanical, and referencing could be smoother, particularly in the third paragraph where sentence boundaries are somewhat blurred by comma splices. Overall, the ideas are easy to follow and the organization is clear throughout.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You attempted some less common vocabulary, such as 'fantabulous' and 'genuinely', which demonstrates an ambition to use a wider range of words. However, 'fantabulous' is far too informal and colloquial for a formal complaint letter to a hotel manager, falling outside appropriate stylistic choices. Other phrases like 'keep us in touch with our roots' work well, but there are minor inaccuracies in collocation, such as 'they took so much of time' instead of 'they took so much time'. The vocabulary is adequate for the task, but lexical control needs to be refined for higher band levels.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response shows a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses ('which keep us in touch') and conditional-style reasoning. However, there are several grammatical errors and punctuation issues that disrupt accuracy. For instance, 'Dear sir' should be capitalized and matched to the prompt's provided greeting 'Dear Sir or Madam,'. Additionally, there is a comma splice in the second paragraph ('Firstly, it took so long..., secondly, they took...'), and awkward phrasing like 'it will be ultimately bring more customers' contains an unnecessary auxiliary verb. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score.

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

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