quoting towie "Hi tin Hopper but the men only recieved 3 dollars...

quoting towie "Hi tin Hopper but the men only recieved 3 dollars back from an outlay of $30-00 = $27-00 $2-00 for the bell boy figures do lie Towie"

That's where you're getting confused, you're adding the $2 to the $27 for no reason. If instead you subtract the $2 from the $27 you get the room price.

Or to look at it another way, the $27 paid was inclusive of the $2 tip. Adding the $2 again to get $29 would be double counting and gives a meaningless answer