PORTLAND, OR — Hoping to improve attendance on traditionally slow weeknights, local BDSM club The Iron Tulip has introduced a loyalty program that allows members to earn points for scenes, volunteer shifts, classes, and purchasing bottled water at what management described as “an extremely reasonable dungeon markup.”
The program, called PainPoints, awards one point for every dollar spent at the club and offers bonuses for activities the management would particularly like people to do more often.
“Tuesday rope practice is double points, cleaning a piece of equipment after you use it is fifty points, and actually reading the event description before asking us questions is currently worth five hundred,” said club manager Mistress Caroline Vex, 42. “Nobody has claimed that last one yet.”
Members can redeem points for free admission, locker rentals, workshop discounts, or a complimentary towel. The highest reward, requiring 25,000 points, is a reserved parking space near the dungeon entrance so the recipient no longer has to walk three blocks through a residential neighborhood carrying a suspiciously long duffel bag.
The program has already sparked controversy among longtime members who believe their previous activity should count toward their totals.
“I have been beaten in this building every other Saturday since 2011,” said submissive Mark “Pup Biscuit” Weller, 48. “You cannot tell me that history is worth zero points. I have scar tissue older than some of the volunteers.”
Weller said he has begun compiling photographs, FetLife event check-ins, and several years of unexplained pharmacy receipts in support of his claim for retroactive credit.
Others objected to the program on philosophical grounds.
“Kink should not be reduced to a transactional system where people perform prescribed behaviors in exchange for arbitrary rewards from someone in authority,” said lifestyle submissive Jenna Vale before abruptly becoming quiet and staring at the floor.
Vex said the club is considering several additions, including birthday rewards, referral bonuses, and a premium membership tier tentatively called PainPoints Black.
“We briefly considered awarding points based on pain tolerance,” she said. “But then three competitive masochists heard about it, and our insurance company called us before we had even finished the meeting.”
As of press time, Weller had accumulated 940 points, 600 of them from repeatedly volunteering to explain to newcomers that the loyalty program was ruining the community.