Terra Nova B&B in Grove City, Mercer County.

This just in from the Unscientific Polls Department:

Several Pennsylvania inns have made the best-of list issued by bedandbreakfast.com, an Internet marketing company and reservation network that solicits online reviews from inn-goers.

Five inns in the state made the list based on the number of reviews filed by guests and the ratings they gave to the rooms, service, value, cleanliness and dining.

Terra Nova House in Grove City, Mercer County, was ranked among the dozen best inns "worldwide" (although the vast majority of the company's 7,000 member-inns are in the United States). Run since 2004 by Barry and Sandy Miller in a 1901 Victorian house, Terra Nova carries a three-diamond rating from AAA. Grove City did well in last year's ranking, too, with the Grove City B&B among the top 10 in the country.

In a separate category of innkeepers, the top 10 included Carol and Rowland Miller of Somerset, who run the Quill Haven Country Inn in a 1918 farmhouse.

Also, three of the top 10 Mid-Atlantic inns were in Pennsylvania -- Brickhouse Inn and The Brafferton Inn, both in Gettysburg, and Cordials B&B of New Hope, Bucks County.

Sandy Soule, vice president of bedandbreakfast.com, said the company based its rankings on a spread sheet it compiled for all the B&Bs that garnered 10 or more reviews. The top vote-getters scored between 50 and 300 reviews (Terra Nova got 98 from August 2007 to August 2008, mostly raves, no complaints). Regional winners could have received as few as 20.

"Some regions don't have many B&Bs, and some innkeepers are more aggressive about asking people to post reviews," Ms. Soule said.

"If people really love a place, they write substantive reviews of what they like the best. We eliminate the ones that just say 'Great place' or 'Loved it,' and only look at the ones with more specific comments.

"Obviously, some people will try to game the system. That's why we suspended the vote-based ratings we started in 2003 and switched to this method last year."

Other subjective criteria may apply as well. If any of the Web site's employees have visited an inn themselves, they may add their own reactions into the rating mix. Also, Ms. Soule said, she pays attention to the opinions of people she respects.

"The most talented photographers in the B&B business live in Philadelphia," she said. "If they've shot a place and tell me it's spectacular, that means something."

A lot of the ratings issued by popular travel magazines are skewed toward very expensive properties, she said. "We are much more affordable, which is important in this terrible economy."

Rates for Terra Nova's five guest rooms, for example, range from $89 to $125 a night.

"Even people who can afford to stay in posher places will pick B&Bs," Ms. Soule continued, "because they love the innkeepers," who give them the inside story on things like neighborhood bistros with great food at half the price of more famous restaurants.

Among other top-ranked B&Bs are The Sallerhof in Salzburg, Austria; Graystone B&B Main Floor Suites in Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario, Canada; the Barn Inn B&B in Millersburg, Ohio; and the Rabbit Hill Inn in Lower Waterford, Vt.