Buying HGVC in Italy-Please advise

[Jenroc]

My husband and I aren’t the type of people that go to the same place every year so my understanding of the HGVC plan is that the points are more meaningful to us. We have an opportunity to purchase 4800 HGVC points with over 9000 rollovers for just the cost of the maintenance fee for this year. The resort is in Italy. Are there any problems that we should know about regarding purchasing resort shares in another country?

 

[Fgaini]

I bought in Scotland without any issue. Just consider the currency risks. You will be exposed to Eur / USD exchange rate.
What will be the annual fee for the 4800 points? The number of points seems low for Tuscany, so I am afraid you are buying an off-season week.

 

[dayooper]

I bought in Scotland without any issue. Just consider the currency risks. You will be exposed to Eur / USD exchange rate.
What will be the annual fee for the 4800 points? The number of points seems low for Tuscany, so I am afraid you are buying an off-season week. As @Fgaini says above, you also have to worry about fluctuations in the exchange rate. The target is $0.15 MF per point and this would higher by quite alot. The price is low, so you have to think about the difference.

According to the HGVC points chart (page 39) it would be a 1 standard bedroom in the platinum season. The only issue I would have is that it has fairly high MF’s for a points generator.

 

[Jenroc]

Thank you so much! I appreciate the feedback. I though $.25 per point on the MF was pretty decent. I have not found lower yet. Also, I was taking into account that the seller is paying ALL closing costs. The purchase price is just for the current MF and there is no cost to the 9200 rollovers. i really appreciate your quick response and feedback. I guess we are not doing too poorly on our first HGVC purchase. I see it could be better at $.15 per point. Does HGVC hit it’s owners with huge increases?

 

[Jenroc]

The exchange rate does not affect the points, correct? You are just referring to travel?

 

[dayooper]

Thank you so much! I appreciate the feedback. I though $.25 per point on the MF was pretty decent. I have not found lower yet. Also, I was taking into account that the seller is paying ALL closing costs. The purchase price is just for the current MF and there is no cost to the 9200 rollovers. i really appreciate your quick response and feedback. I guess we are not doing too poorly on our first HGVC purchase. I see it could be better at $.15 per point. Does HGVC hit it’s owners with huge increases?

Here are the Tug member reported MF’s. In that sticky thread (always pinned to the top of the board), you will find a great spreadsheet made by @GT75 that gives the best MF per point ratios in the system. That deed you are looking at has a MF per point ratio of $0.21 (we don’t include the club dues as you pay only 1 per account, not deed). Your best MF deals are in Vegas, Scotland and South Carolina. My Flamingo deed has about $0.155 per point and that’s on the high side for a platinum deed in Vegas.

You are correct that you have to look the price point. Unless it’s a very hard to book location, the lower the MF’s, the higher the initial cost. Taking into account that you are getting it for paying the MF’s, I don’t think you are getting a bad deal. I almost put a bid in on a 6200 point 1 bedroom plus at that same resort, but didn’t after the price started to creep up.

There really isn’t any huge assessments in MF’s as the resorts keep a nice reserve for repairs, upgrades and updates. The MF’s increase generally 2%-5% a year, but most didn’t raise them at all for 2021. With HGVC’s acquisition of Diamond Resorts International, there may be some uncertainty with MF’s the next few years, but I really don’t think they will slam us with huge MF increases or special assessments.

The exchange rate does not affect the points, correct? You are just referring to travel?

Nope, once they set the points, those stay. You get fluctuations with the exchange rate on the MF’s, but the points stay the same.

I’m going to have this moved to the HGVC forum where you can get more opinions on this deal. The members there are very knowledgeable and there is a wealth of information within the stickies and normal threads.

 

[Jenroc]

Thank you! This is all so incredibly helpful and thank you again for taking The time to help! I am certain we will be adding more to our portfoIio.

 

[phil1ben]

We have stayed at Borgo Alle Vigne and it is beautiful. You will however need a car when you visit because it is in a rural area of Tuscany. Normally HGVC only allows you to carryover one year of points. Curious how they are carrying over 9000 points. If the Seller is paying the closing costs it is a very good deal. Keep in mind it is only a 1 bedroom and it would be tight with more than 3 people (there is a sleeper sofa). Don't forget the Club Activation Fees, Club Dues and Transfer Fees. Heartily recommend going to your new timeshare.

 

[Jenroc]

We have stayed at Borgo Alle Vigne and it is beautiful. You will however need a car when you visit because it is in a rural area of Tuscany. Normally HGVC only allows you to carryover one year of points. Curious how they are carrying over 9000 points. If the Seller is paying the closing costs it is a very good deal. Keep in mind it is only a 1 bedroom and it would be tight with more than 3 people (there is a sleeper sofa). Don't forget the Club Activation Fees, Club Dues and Transfer Fees. Heartily recommend going to your new timeshare.

Thank you for your feedback! Excellent information! The seller paid the transfer fees, however I do have to pay the dues and the activation fee. Were you able to fly in close to the resort? Do you speak any Italian? What were the most memorable things you did/recommend? I think they were able to carry over additional points due to COVID.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I stayed at this resort when it first opened. Agree that it is a beautiful resort and you need a car. The resort speaks English. Download Google translator for the town - many people also speak English. No worries. I would love to stay there again.

Pisa is the closest airport which is about 45 min away. Dining in the surrounding villages is most memorable. There are some medieval towns in the area worth exploring. We visited a winery. We also took a day trip to Cinque Terre and hiked the trails. If I did it again, I would probably book a night or two at Cinque because it's a long day. Lucca was a surprisingly fun day trip. Rent bikes and ride them on the town wall.

Best to visit in Spring/Fall. Summer was too hot. Hard to climb clocktowers (and leaning towers!) when it is 95 degrees outside.

Biggest question is whether you would regularly go there to get preferential reservations. If not you might do better with a once or twice in a lifetime points trade with lower buy-in and MF. You would need to reserve at nine months midnight for peak season because club season availability is now more limited.

 

[phil1ben]

Thank you for your feedback! Excellent information! The seller paid the transfer fees, however I do have to pay the dues and the activation fee. Were you able to fly in close to the resort? Do you speak any Italian? What were the most memorable things you did/recommend? I think they were able to carry over additional points due to COVID.

As stated above Pisa is the closest airport. We do not speak Italian but had no problem getting around. We did hire a private guide for two days when we were there. We have used the same guide for our last two trips. It was our fourth trip to Tuscany but first to Borgo Alle Vigne. We drove from there to Lake Como (spent four days there at Villa de Este) and then visited small towns at the foot of the Alps where my wife's family came from. Next trip will be a month in southern Italy below Rome. Lucca, Portofino, Florence, Pisa, Volterra.......so many beautiful places in Tuscany.

 

[rdw95]

We own 2 platinum weeks in Borgo. Love it. The one bedroom and one bedroom plus units are on the top part of the site, with the vineyard behind, and a view of Peccioli on the hillside several miles away in front. The one bedroom units are on the bottom floor, and somewhat hard to book. Also, note that the Platinum season at Borgo is essentially March - September. We are returning this year for 2 1/2 weeks in September. The staff is great and very helpful. Yes - you will need a car to get around, but just use Waze and it is very helpful and easy to use - and also notes the speed trap cameras.

In the past we have always flown into Rome, and rented a car there and drove up (about 3 1/2 hours). This year we are flying into and out of Florence on Lufthanza airlines.

We lived in Italy back in the 80's while in the Navy, and love to go back. Borgo is very centrally located for short day trips. Florence is 1 hour by train (easiest way to get there as you cannot drive around central Florence anyway). The train station dumps you out just next to the Central Market. You can walk everywhere. Great place - one of our favorite places to go - been there 13 times over the years. Borgo is less than an hour drive from Lucca, Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena, and lots of other small towns. There is a grocery store less than 5 minutes away. Oh, and did I say the wine is inexpensive !

The maintenance fees are reasonable, and I think that having a Platinum week 1 bedroom would be a great way to get in there. Plus, Borgo is in pretty high demand, so I bet you would never have a problem or issue if you needed to unload it.

My recommendation - go for it!

 

[dayooper]

We have stayed at Borgo Alle Vigne and it is beautiful. You will however need a car when you visit because it is in a rural area of Tuscany. Normally HGVC only allows you to carryover one year of points. Curious how they are carrying over 9000 points. If the Seller is paying the closing costs it is a very good deal. Keep in mind it is only a 1 bedroom and it would be tight with more than 3 people (there is a sleeper sofa). Don't forget the Club Activation Fees, Club Dues and Transfer Fees. Heartily recommend going to your new timeshare.

Saved 2019 points were considered like 2020 saved points and any that weren't used were automatically moved to 2021. The saved 2019/2020 points will expire at the end of 2021, but the system will use those points first when booking a 2021 club reservation (you can't use saved points on a home week reservation). You can always deposit those points into RCI and extend their use for two more years. You can also make Hilton Hotel reservations using those points. I wouldn't go this route unless you would be just letting them expire as it's not the most cost effective way to use your points.

 

[zora]

We stayed at Borgo when it first opened. We flew into FCO; took a hopper flight to Pisa; rented a car from carjet.uk; and had a great time. We had reservations for April, 2020 but hope to return next year, 2022. The concierge is fluent in English. If you visit and don't care for Borgo, I'm sure you won't have a problem selling.