Guide
Fire regulations for furniture in holiday accommodation
Fire specification is the part of a furniture schedule most likely to be got wrong quietly, because nothing visible changes when it is wrong. It surfaces at insurance renewal, at a licensing inspection, or after an incident — all of which are bad moments to discover it.
7 min read · Updated August 2026
The short answer
Upholstered furniture supplied in the UK must meet the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. Furniture for non-domestic and public areas is additionally specified to BS 7176, where hotels, restaurants and public buildings normally sit in the medium hazard category — which in practice means Crib 5.
The ignition sources, in plain terms
BS 5852 defines the ignition sources that upholstered furniture is tested against. The names sound technical and describe something very ordinary:
- Source 0 — a smouldering cigarette.
- Source 1 — a lit match.
- Crib 5 — a small wooden crib, a substantially larger ignition source than a match.
BS 7176 and the hazard categories
BS 7176 sets out how upholstered seating for non-domestic use should be specified, sorted into hazard categories by the setting rather than the furniture:
- Low hazard — offices, schools, universities, museums, exhibitions.
- Medium hazard — hotels, restaurants, public halls, hostels, public buildings.
- High hazard — sleeping accommodation in hospitals, offshore installations, certain hostels.
- Very high hazard — secure psychiatric units and prison cell accommodation.
What this means for a park or a lodge
Public and communal areas (reception, bar, restaurant, entertainment suite) fall naturally into medium hazard, and the practical answer is Crib 5.
Furniture inside self-catering units is a different question. It is domestic-style furniture supplied in the course of business, so the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 apply, and it must carry the permanent labelling those regulations require. Many operators specify Crib 5 throughout the estate anyway, for a straightforward reason: one specification across a fleet is far easier to buy, replace and prove than two.
Where a unit is licensed, insured or inspected under terms of its own, those terms take precedence over any general rule. Check them rather than assume.
Cover and filling are tested together
The most common misunderstanding in this area is treating fire performance as a property of the fabric. It is not. Compliance is a property of the finished composite — cover, interliner where used, and filling, tested as one.
This is why a fire-retardant fabric cannot simply be applied to any frame and declared compliant, and why reupholstering an existing piece in a customer's own material voids whatever certification it previously had unless the new composite is tested or an interliner is specified.
Keep the paperwork
Ask for the certification at order stage rather than after delivery, and keep it filed against the unit. An insurer or inspector asking the question wants a document, and a supplier who has since changed their fabric book may no longer be able to produce one for a piece bought three years ago.
Common questions
Fire regulations for furniture, in short.
What does Crib 5 actually mean?
It refers to ignition source 5 in BS 5852 — a small wooden crib used as a test ignition source, considerably larger than a match. Furniture described as Crib 5 has been tested so that the finished cover-and-filling composite resists that source.
Do curtains and blinds need to be fire rated?
In public and communal areas they are normally specified to BS 5867 for flammability. Inside self-catering units the requirement is usually driven by the site licence and the insurer rather than by a single national rule, so check both.
Does mattress specification differ?
Yes. Mattresses are tested under BS 7177, which uses its own low, medium, high and very high hazard categories. Hotel and similar accommodation normally sits at medium.
Can I use my own fabric on contract furniture?
Often yes, but the composite has to be certified. In practice that means either testing your chosen fabric with the filling, or specifying a fire-retardant interliner beneath it. Ask before you commit to a fabric.
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