With a Blomo virtual card, pay online at the time of booking whenever the listing allows it. An online payment is exactly what a virtual card is built for: a number, an expiry date and a CVV typed into a checkout. Paying at the property is a different transaction — the card is presented at a desk, the property may want a deposit, and deposit desks are among the merchants that refuse prepaid and virtual cards as a matter of policy (where the cards work). Whichever you choose, a booking can reserve money on your balance before it spends it, and the balance on the day of each charge is what decides whether the stay is paid.
What the two big platforms say about cards
Airbnb’s help page on accepted payment methods reads, in its general section: “In most countries, you can pay with major credit cards, as well as debit cards that can be processed as credit cards.” The list for most countries begins “Visa, MasterCard, Amex, JCB, and debit cards that can be processed as credit cards” (Airbnb Help, “Payment methods accepted”, read on 26 September 2026).
The only sentence on that page about prepaid cards belongs to Klarna, the pay-over-time option offered to residents of the USA and Canada: “Klarna accepts all major debit and credit cards–like Visa, Discover, Maestro, and Mastercard. Prepaid cards are not accepted.” Outside that option, the page neither names prepaid cards as accepted nor excludes them. Whether a particular card “can be processed as a credit card” is decided by Airbnb’s payment processing from the card number, not by the page.
Booking.com’s help pages talk about cards mostly in terms of guarantees (Booking.com FAQ, read on 26 September 2026):
- “You’ll need a valid credit card to guarantee your reservation with most properties. However, we offer a number of hotels that will guarantee your booking without a card.”
- “In general, hotels can’t accept a debit card to guarantee a booking. However, there are some exceptions. You’ll be able see if it is possible during the booking process.”
Those pages do not mention prepaid cards by name. So neither platform publishes a rule that settles the question for a Blomo card in advance. Blomo does not promise that a particular platform or property will accept a particular card. The booking page tells you at checkout.
Which Blomo card this touches
According to Blomo’s data as of 26 September 2026, only the Estonia card is registered as prepaid; the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, United Kingdom and Indonesia cards are not. A card’s BIN classification can change. A rule that refuses prepaid cards as a class catches the Estonia card; for the other five it is simply not the rule that decides, and acceptance is still the merchant’s call.
The Estonia card has two further limits that matter for a trip: no Apple Pay or Google Pay, and no ATM access (fees). It pays online and nowhere else. That makes it a card for booking online, not for settling a bill at a front desk.
| Estonia card | The other five cards | |
|---|---|---|
| Registered as prepaid | Yes | No |
| Online booking | Yes | Yes |
| Paying at a terminal | No — no phone wallet | Through Apple Pay or Google Pay, added by hand |
| Cash at an ATM | No | ATM access is part of the product, at 1% or 2% depending on the card; Blomo’s pages do not describe how a virtual card with no plastic is used at a machine — the physical card of the same product withdraws at any ATM |
| Currency | EUR | EUR (Netherlands, Spain), PLN, GBP, IDR |
Paying now: what can still happen after the booking
Paying online does not always mean one charge at the moment you click.
The platform may check or hold before it charges. Booking.com describes a pre-authorisation as “a temporary hold on an amount to ensure your card is valid and has sufficient funds”, adds that “The amount held will be returned to your account after a certain period of time, depending on the property and your card provider”, and that “In most cases, the hotel will pre-authorize your card for the full amount of your reservation.” On a Blomo card, a hold of that kind reduces the spendable balance while it lasts; when it is released, the amount is back on the balance. Blomo does not publish how long a merchant’s hold lasts — that depends on the merchant, as Booking.com itself says.
The payment may be split over time. Airbnb offers “Pay Part Now, Part Later” and “Reserve Now, Pay Later”, under which later payments are “automatically charged on the scheduled date listed at checkout”. Airbnb lists the conditions, among them a check-in date “at least 14 days away”, a stay of “less than 28 nights” and a remaining total of “$50 USD or more” (Airbnb Help, scheduled payments, read on 26 September 2026). Airbnb also says that if a scheduled charge fails, “you’ll be contacted by email and push notification to complete the payment to avoid cancellation of the reservation.”
For a card funded from a balance, a scheduled charge is the same animal as a subscription renewal: the merchant starts it, you are not at a checkout, and the balance on that day is all that counts. One Blomo action empties the spendable balance without any money leaving it — ordering a new card holds your whole available balance until that card is activated. A scheduled Airbnb charge landing in that window has nothing to draw on. A top-up made after the order is not held (ordering a second card holds your balance).
Paying at the property: the desk and the deposit
“Pay at the property” moves the card from a checkout page to a front desk, and that desk often wants two things: the payment for the stay and a deposit for incidentals.
Airbnb says this directly about the hotels listed on it: “Hotels may ask for a credit card at check-in to cover the cost of incidentals or a security deposit as part of their standard procedures, but this must be disclosed in the listing or in the listing’s price breakdown at checkout. The deposit, minus any charges under the hotel’s policy, is usually released upon checkout or shortly after checkout. Acceptable forms of deposit or credit card holds vary by hotel policy.” (Airbnb Help, read on 26 September 2026).
Blomo’s own pages say the same thing from the card side: some merchants refuse prepaid and virtual cards as a matter of policy, hotel deposits and car hire desks being the usual examples, and the refusal comes from the merchant’s rules, for virtual cards from any issuer (where the cards work). A virtual card also has no plastic to hand over. On five of the six cards, a phone wallet is the only way to present a Blomo virtual card at a terminal; the Estonia card has no phone wallet at all.
So paying at the property stacks up three uncertainties that paying online does not: whether the desk takes the card at all, whether it takes a virtual one for the deposit, and how long a deposit hold sits on your balance. The one Blomo product that changes this is the physical card: a desk does not refuse it for being virtual, though whether it takes the card is still the merchant’s decision. Unlike the virtual cards, the physical card requires an identity check (physical cards).
Currency
Paying a euro stay with one of the three euro cards — Netherlands, Spain or Estonia — spares you a second conversion at the merchant’s or the network’s side. The amount taken off your USDT balance still follows the rate of the card’s currency. The card’s transaction fee applies on top: 0.5% on the Netherlands card, 1% on Spain, Poland, Indonesia and Estonia, 1.5% on the United Kingdom card (fees). A hold and the final charge can be made at different moments, so in USDT the two need not match to the cent. Paying a host in euros is worked through in how do you pay a European host in euros?
If the booking is cancelled
Airbnb states that when a host cancels, “Your refund will go back to the payment method you used when you booked”, and that how long it takes to arrive depends on the bank or financial institution (Airbnb Help, read on 26 September 2026). A refund to a Blomo card lands on the Blomo balance. A dispute about a stay that was not delivered is between you and the merchant — the reason is set out in why there is no chargeback on a Blomo card.
Questions people actually ask
Should I pay for accommodation now or at the property with a Blomo card?
Now, online, whenever the listing allows it. A virtual card is built for online checkouts, while front desks and deposit counters are where prepaid and virtual cards are most often refused.
Does Airbnb accept prepaid cards?
Airbnb’s page on accepted payment methods lists major credit cards and “debit cards that can be processed as credit cards”. The only mention of prepaid cards is in the Klarna section for the USA and Canada, where they are not accepted. Elsewhere the page neither accepts nor excludes them by name.
Which Blomo card is prepaid?
According to Blomo’s data as of 26 September 2026, only the Estonia card; a card’s BIN classification can change. It also has no Apple Pay, no Google Pay and no ATM access, so it pays online only.
What is a pre-authorisation on a booking?
A temporary hold on an amount, often the full price of the stay, to check that the card is valid and funded. Booking.com says the held amount is returned after a period that depends on the property and the card provider. On a Blomo card, a hold reduces the spendable balance until it is released, and the released amount is back on the balance.
Can a hotel deposit go on a Blomo virtual card?
Sometimes, but deposit desks are a common place for prepaid and virtual cards to be refused, by the merchant’s own policy. Airbnb notes that acceptable forms of deposit vary by hotel. A desk does not refuse the physical Blomo card for being virtual, though acceptance is still the merchant’s decision; the physical card requires an identity check.
What if a scheduled Airbnb payment fails?
Airbnb says it contacts you by email and push notification to complete the payment and avoid cancellation. Keep the scheduled amount plus the card’s transaction fee on the balance, and remember that ordering a new Blomo card holds the whole balance until that card is activated.
Read on
- Where a Blomo card works — Online, in shops, at ATMs, and where a card gets refused.
- Why was I charged $1 when adding my card? — A card check is not a booking hold; what each one does.
- Physical cards — The card a desk cannot refuse for being virtual, and the identity check it requires.
- Fees, in full — Transaction and ATM fees, card by card.