5c or Not 5c - That is the Question: Why did the Gorrods move into C5C?

I’d like you to put yourselves in the position of Jane Tanner and Russell O’Brien.  You have decided to go on a spring break holiday with three couples that you know and all of whom have young children.  There is another couple that you are friends with, Jim and Charlotte Gorrod who live about 2 minutes’ walk from your house in Exeter who also have a young child and are from a similar professional background to the other couples.   If that couple books the exact same holiday dates, to the exact same Portuguese village with the exact same holiday company, what is the chances that this is a fluke coincidence rather than a coordinated decision to go on the same holiday?  I’m pretty good at stats and my back of the envelope guesstimate at the probability it’s a fluke coincidence would be less than 1/1000.

Now, further consider this.  The Tapas group had checked into 5A, 5B, 5D and 5H with 5C being left unoccupied.  Now the Gorrods on the other hand stayed the first 2 nights in an unknown location, then had booked into 5C in another Mark Warner building, the Millennium buildings around 5 minutes’ walk away from the Ocean Club Buildings.  Was this also one of those remarkable coincidences?  Or perhaps had the Gorrods intended to book 5C at the Ocean Club to stay next to their friends, and mistakenly got allocated 5C in the other building?  If that was the case, was there a reason why they decided not to change their booking to move next to their friends?  Now why did Jane Tanner seemingly downplay her relationship with the Gorrods?  At her Leicestershire Police interview when questioned about a text she had sent to a Charlotte Batchelor at 8.30pm May 3^rd, she nervously explained that it was a friend of  hers from Exeter who had come “on the same holiday” but had “gone back on the Saturday”, giving  police the impression that Charlotte was back in the UK at that stage, whereas Charlotte Gorrod nee Batchelor was in fact still at the Millennium.  So how to the Gorrods’ fit in.  They hired a grey Opel Corsa hire car which ran up 750kms and was apparently lent to Russell O’Brien at some stage.  They came out with no check in luggage and seemingly returned without a seat on the plane for their 2 year old son.

The second thing that perplexes me about the Millennium is the breakfast arrangements.  The McCanns and T6 are all very clear: the Tapas group went there for their inclusive breakfast, (but the McCanns confirmed by the T6 claimed that they only went to breakfast there on the Sunday and ate breakfast in their apartment every subsequent day.   The claim was questioned by the PJ who found no breakfast material in 5A and furthermore collected witness statements from 4 or 5 independent witnesses (breakfast waiting staff and  the breakfast check in lady at the Millennium plus Dianne Webster (the only Tapas member who seems to be  telling the truth who say s they were there on the only day she was there on Wednesday) who all contradicted the McCanns and said they went there every day (though only the breakfast check in lady says she  say them (no mention of Maddie) eating there on 3^rd.  My gut feeling is 1 that the McCanns are lying about this and 2 that it might be important because they have clearly got some or all T6 to lie about it also. (not sure all T6 said they were there but I know some did).  They also seem to be exaggerating the distance between Ocean Club and Millennium from 5 mins to 10m making it out to be an arduous treck.  The other issue is their suspicious claim that they had no buggy (though we know MW allowed its customers to borrow them).

Does anyone have any brain waves as to how these odd coincidences and evasions factor into the whole story??