Swikly vs Holdyy: card imprint or pre-authorisation, which one actually secures your deposits?
Objective comparison of Swikly and Holdyy for online deposit management. Card imprint vs Stripe pre-authorisation, commission vs subscription, intermediary vs direct control.
When you search for an online deposit solution, Swikly comes up fast. They have been on the market since 2016 and played a real part in bringing digital deposits to the mainstream, primarily in France.
Holdyy aims wider: any professional with a Stripe account, anywhere in Europe and beyond. But more importantly, we do not secure deposits the same way. And that technical difference changes everything.
What did Swikly bring to the market?
Before Swikly, collecting a deposit meant a cheque, a bank transfer, or a handshake when the guest arrived. Swikly made it digital. The property manager sends a link, the guest registers their card, done. No more paper, no more chasing.
That was a genuine contribution to the market. And for small-scale hosts managing a handful of properties without worrying too much about the technical details, it works. The promise is clear: you save time at check-in and check-out, and the guest no longer has to front the amount in cash or by cheque.
The problem is that many professionals assume their deposit is "held" when it is not. That confusion is far from trivial: it changes the actual guarantee you can rely on the day damage occurs.
Is a card imprint really a hold?
This is the central point of this article, and it is widely misunderstood.
When a guest accepts a "swik", they register their card on a secure form powered by Mangopay, Swikly's payment provider. But no amount is reserved. The guest's card limit is not affected. The card is stored, not charged, not blocked.
In practice: if your guest has a EUR 500 deposit on Monday and maxes out their card on Tuesday, there is nothing left to collect on Friday. A card imprint is a promise, not a guarantee. The day you try to collect, the transaction can be declined for lack of available funds on the card, and you have no immediate recourse.
Swikly does offer a pre-authorisation option on request, but it is not the default mode. Most deposits are therefore issued as a simple imprint, with no funds actually reserved.
Pre-authorisation: how does it work at Holdyy?
Holdyy works differently. When your guest clicks a deposit link, Stripe places a pre-authorisation on their card. This is a standard card-network mechanism (Visa, Mastercard): the amount is reserved on the guest's card. The funds are neither charged nor transferred, but they are blocked. The guest cannot spend them.
If the stay goes smoothly, the hold is released automatically at the end of the 7 days. In case of damage, you capture all or part of the amount with a single click. The guest's card is charged immediately, and the funds land in your account according to your Stripe payout schedule. You can also capture only part of the amount: the remainder is released automatically.
No intermediary between the guest's card and your account. No third party holding money on your behalf.
How long does it take to get your money back?
If you have used Swikly before, you know the feeling: a guest causes damage, you trigger the collection, and then... you wait. One week. Two weeks. Sometimes three. You do not really know where the funds are or when they will arrive. We have been through it, and we are not the only ones. On Trustpilot, the feedback is consistent: release delays stretching weeks after departure, difficulty reaching support, and a lack of visibility on payout status.
This is tied to the model: your collections pass through a payment intermediary before reaching your account. An extra layer, extra delays.
With Holdyy, there is no intermediary. Captured funds go straight to your Stripe account. It is your account, your dashboard, your payout schedule. If you stop using Holdyy tomorrow, your Stripe stays, your history stays.
How much does it cost?
With Swikly, there is no subscription. You pay a commission on every deposit issued, whether there is an incident or not. On a stay where everything goes fine, you still pay. And if you need to collect after damage, a second commission is added on the captured amount. The total cost therefore depends directly on your volume and your collections.
With Holdyy, it is a fixed subscription: EUR 19 per month for the Standard plan, EUR 39 per month for the Business plan. You pay the same price whether you issue 5 or 50 deposits in a month. Placing a pre-authorisation costs nothing. Fees only kick in when you actually capture funds, which remains rare. The Holdyy commission is then 1% (Standard) or 0.5% (Business) on the captured amount, on top of Stripe fees.
The more your activity grows, the wider the gap. We have laid out the full calculations in a dedicated article.
The comparison
| Swikly | Holdyy | |
|---|---|---|
| Security mechanism | Card imprint (no hold by default) | Stripe pre-authorisation (funds blocked) |
| Payment | Managed by Swikly | On your own Stripe account |
| Pricing | 1.99% + EUR 0.25 per deposit | EUR 19 or 39/month, all included |
| Fees on damage | 3.4% + EUR 0.25 additional | Stripe fees + 1% (or 0.5%) |
| Deposit cap | EUR 2,500 (standard) | No platform cap |
| Disputes | Managed by Swikly | You stay in control, via your Stripe |
| Languages | FR, EN | 7 languages |
| Mobile app | No | In development |
Swikly pricing from swikly.com/en/rates.
Swikly or Holdyy: which should you choose?
Swikly remains a solid option if you manage 1 to 3 properties, your deposit amounts are low, and you are already integrated with a PMS that has a native connector. Below 5 deposits per month, the commission may cost less than a subscription.
Holdyy is built for professionals who want a real guarantee on their deposits, with an amount actually blocked on the guest's card, who want to keep control of their money on their own Stripe, and whose volume makes the fixed subscription clearly more advantageous than per-deposit commissions.
It is not just a question of price. It is a question of model: are your funds actually blocked, and do you have direct access to your money?
Want to see the difference? Try Holdyy free for 7 days and test real pre-authorisations on your own Stripe account.