A motel has 4 rooms that can fit 4 people each. How many ways can 6 people be arranged in these rooms?
First distribute the 6 people any which way: 4^6 possibilities
Then take away the number of ways they could all be in the same room: 4
And finally take away the number of ways that exactly 5 could be in the same room:
4 possibilities for the room containing 5 people
3 possibilities for the other room used
6 possibilities for the odd man out (which automatically selects the group of 5)
So I believe the answer is 4^6 - 4 - 4*3*6 = 4020
Does that match the answer you have?