The two title compounds were synthesized and investigated with the inelastic-neutron-scattering (INS) technique. They contain mixed YbMBr93- (M=Cr3+, Ho3+) dimers as discrete units, and the magnetic excitations of mixed Yb3+-Cr3+ and Yb3+-Ho3+ dimers could thus be observed. The Yb3+-Cr3+ dimer has three INS transitions, for which anisotropic exchange, as well as zero-field splitting of Cr3+, has to be included in the exchange Hamiltonian. For the Yb3+-Ho3+ dimer the effect of the exchange interaction manifests itself as a broadening and a splitting of the crystal-electric-field levels of the isolated Ho3+ ion. Taking into account the full (2J+1) ground-state multiplet of Ho3+, as well as anisotropic exchange, gives a satisfactory description of this dimer.