3 women out for girls' night accused of prostitution at The Standard

MEATPACKING DISTRICT (WABC) -- A girls' night out at a trendy New York City nightspot turned into a night they'll never forget for all the wrong reasons.

Three friends were accused of being prostitutes.

The women say a security guard at The Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District told them to stop soliciting.

Now the hotel is apologizing.

"You can buy a drink, but you can't be here soliciting," said Kantaki Washington, a hotel patron.

Apparently, the guard meant soliciting as in prostitution. It's the last thing Kantaki Washington and her friends ever expected to hear from a security guard during what was supposed to be a fun girls' night out at the Standard Hotel.

"It was embarrassing. You can look at it from the perspective of was it race discrimination, was it based on gender?" Washington said.

The three ladies, Cydney was actually taking a picture, were at the trendy spot on August 28 having a cocktail at the bar.

Kantaki has a law background and J Lyn and Cydney are both teachers. The ladies tell Eyewitness News a male customer, walked up to them and was acting strange.

When a security guard approached, they assumed, he was there to help them but instead, they say, he pulled the stranger aside and doubled back to them.

"He was so adamant that he had caught us soliciting sex in the restaurant. I mean, my reaction was pure mortification," said J Lyn Thomas, a hotel patron.

The ladies asked to speak to a manger who eventually showed up but they say they got nowhere and left.

But they weren't willing to let this one slide, wrote a letter to the hotel and eventually heard back, and got an apology.

To make good, The Standard invited the group back for a bottle of champagne and dinner for four.

"This situation sounds like, I got caught and now I have to say something to save face," Thomas said.

The Standard out sources its security and issued a statement to Eyewitness News saying in part, the guard at the center of this mess, "...is no longer welcome to work at our establishment, and we have launched a full internal review of the Standard's policies and procedures..."

The women are convinced it has everything to do with the color of their skin.

"There was nothing about our behavior or dress or anything else that was different from anyone else that night," Thomas said.

The hotel has yet to explain why these women were approached. They want to see a change in policy or they say they will never go back.