A Korean spa and wellness centre in northern Virginia, has apologised after "miscommunication" led to it ejecting a customer for "abnormal sexual behaviours and orientation".

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) conducted an investigation after receiving a complaint from Riya Suising, who was forced out of Spa World by staff because of her sexual orientation.

In the report, Spa World CEO, Sang Lee, said: "It is our policy not to accept any kinds of abnormal sexual oriented customers to our facilities such as homosexuals or transgenders."

Following the release of the report, Spa World spokesman, Tim Cho, said the written response was supposed to communicate that sexual activity is not permitted in the spa, blaming the "Korean-English" language barrier for the confusion.

In a further statement, Sang Lee acknowledged that "there was a mistake of word choices" in the BBB report, stating that the original message of the letter was "contorted."

"To state our policy, Spa World do not discriminate against any groups and we never will," said Lee. "What we do is to enforce a very strict policy of prohibiting public obscenities and misbehaviour in the facility."

The company has apologised to Suising and has pledged to ensure equality for its customers.