Futility Closet

“Hotel Puzzle”: Solution

Posted in Puzzles by Greg Ross on April 28th, 2006

Solution to Hotel Puzzle:

There’s actually no difficulty here. The desk clerk has $25, the guests have $3, and the bellboy has $2.

The “trouble” arises only because we’re trying to add the bellboy’s $2 to the guests’ $27. Instead we should subtract it, giving $25 for the clerk, which is correct.

In effect, the men paid $27 for a $25 room, and the clerk gave the change to the bellboy.