QUESTION

What is the industry standard for laying wood plank-style tiles in regards to the offset and direction (horizontal or vertical to the entrance of the room)?

ANSWER

ANSWER -  The ANSI A108.02 standards state that any tile being installed in a running bond/staggered/off-set pattern where the side being offset is greater than 15 inches, the offset pattern will be a maximum of 33% unless otherwise specified by the tile manufacturer.  The reason they have this standard is because the center of the tile and the ends of the tile will have the greatest warpage, so you don't want the end of a tile to line up with the center of the adjacent tile or you might get excessive tile lippage (one edge is higher or lower than the adjacent tile edge).

With the typical porcelain wood looking plank tiles they tend to come in random widths with the same lengths.  How they are staggered will vary based on personal preference.  There is no standard stating to what degree the tile can be staggered other than not to exceed 33% offsets.

There is no standard for what direction a rectangle or square tile should be installed in relative to any point of reference, such as the entrance of the room in this case.  The tile installer will consider the dimensions of the room relative to the dimensions of the tile and the width of the grout joint to determine how best to install the tile to avoid excess cutting of the tile.  It is often an aesthetic decision and it would be prudent of the installer to dry-layout some of the tile and give their client a choice pointing out the pros and cons respectively.