In BrE we say, This van/room seats 10 people.
***** NOT A TEACHER !!! *****
Mr. Moderator,
Thank you for your note.
(1) It is a good idea that this website requires non-teachers like me to
state that fact.
(2) After reading your post, I checked 8 American dictionaries. They
mostly recommend
to seat.
(3) Here are two examples of
to sit:
Our dining room table
sits 6 persons.
The car will
sit 4 persons.
My brother suggested something that I had never considered
before: size seems to play a factor. A relatively small thing
such as a table or car may take "sit," but apparently anything
large needs "seat." From my dictionaries:
We can seat 300 people./A theater seats 2100 people.
(4) Probably learners would be well-advised to use "seat" for
all sentences.
(5) It would be great to get input from other Americans.
THANK YOU