Furniture Testing for the Hospitality Industry

RIGA is the hospitality industry's independent furniture testing house, created because brands deserve trusted, professional clarity on furniture safety and supply in demanding public sector environments.

It started with a hard lesson: products that had already passed British standards still failed once they hit real hospitality environments. That gap told us something important, hospitality needed its own endurance standard, built around how furniture is actually used, not just how it's tested in theory. So the industry built one. RIGA is the world's first hospitality-dedicated endurance standard, created by the industry, for the industry which means brands can trust it reflects real-world risk, not a generic checklist.

Testing

Hospitality environments punish furniture in ways most standards never anticipate. Two examples:

• Trolleys, service equipment and industrial cleaning machines all take a daily toll on furniture life.
• Chairs left on tables during floor cleaning, which fall and cause damage or failure.

RIGA Test uses modern testing technology to replicate these real conditions, so brands can be confident their furniture has been proven against the pressures it will actually face.

Approval Process

A single passed sample doesn't guarantee consistent quality across a full production run — and that's exactly the gap RIGA closes. We run sophisticated batch testing in the UK dimensional, build and strength checks applied either at source production or on receipt of goods, and measured against the RIGA standard every time.

Every approved product receives a RIGA label, issued electronically with a unique reference number (URN) and issue date. Anyone can verify a RIGA-labelled product on the RIGA website to confirm its authenticity and supplier giving brands, buyers and end clients a simple, trustworthy way to check that what's in the building is genuinely what was promised.

"Like a chassis number on a car."

Foundation

Every product is tested to British contract-level 2 endurance standards and BIFMA, the American furniture standard, giving brands assurance that their furniture is safe and functional for both commercial and institutional use. This covers strength, durability and stability for seating, tables, beds and mattresses, alongside UK, EU and US fire regulations for upholstered furniture and materials.

Additional Unique Tests

Beyond these foundation standards, products face further testing built specifically around the pressures of hospitality trading. Only products that pass become RIGA certified, confirmed fit for purpose in demanding hospitality and public sector settings and assured as comfortable, safe and durable.

For brands, that certification means one thing: confidence. Confidence that what's specified is what's delivered, confidence that it will perform under real pressure, and confidence that it can be proven, to a client, an auditor or an end user, at any point in its life.