GOLD BEACH; Where's the best hotel in the continental United States and Canada?

According to a poll of Travel + Leisure magazine readers, it's the Tu Tu' Tun Lodge in Gold Beach.

The magazine asks its subscribers each year to scour the country and the world for the best of everything: hotels, cities, islands, spas, airlines and more. This year, with 19,000 subscribers participating, Tu Tu' Tun, a 20-room resort on the Rogue River, received the highest rating on the continent - ahead of 12 Four Seasons and 11 Ritz-Carltons that also made the list.

So what makes Tu Tu' Tun (pronounced too TOOT en) No. 1?

“I don't have a clue,” said owner Laurie Van Zante, who has run the lodge with her husband, Dirk, since 1980, when they bought it from his parents, who built it in 1970. “I think our guests are crazy. I don't know what they're thinking. There are absolutely, no question, a lot of lavishly furnished, better designed properties. But what happens here, by the end of your stay, you can feel the heart and soul of this place.”

Van Zante described the kind of personal attention that distinguishes service at Tu Tu' Tun, where staff are expected to know guests by name, amenities other than food and lodging are free, tipping isn't allowed and deposits are waived for return guests, as what put the lodge over the top.

“We like to think we're doing something different,” Van Zante said. “Apparently we are.”

Jennifer Cole, associate editor of Travel + Leisure in New York, agreed that service was the key factor.

“Especially within the U.S. and Canada, we've really seen our readers embracing smaller, more intimate properties,” Cole said, noting that 15 of the top 22 spots on the list are taken by hotels with fewer than 100 rooms. “They're really looking for the personal attention.”

The survey rated hotels in five categories: rooms/facilities, location, service, food and value. Cole said Tu Tu' Tun's service stood out because of its staff-to-guest ratio, which averages 1-to-1 - a staff of 40 is on hand to serve typically about 40 guests.

Of course, that level of service comes at a price, which varies widely by season and room choice. During the summer, when the lodge runs at full occupancy, that price ranges from around $300 a night to more than $700 a night, including meals, taxes and the service fee. However, Tu Tu' Tun qualified for Travel + Leisure's list of bargains.

The magazine breaks down its survey several ways. In addition to the top national ranking, Tu Tu' Tun was ranked 17th in the world and second in the world in the category for hotels with rooms available for less than $250, behind The Peninsula in Bangkok, Thailand.

In order to be included in the rankings, hotels had to be rated by a minimum number of survey respondents, which the magazine would not disclose, although Cole said it was enough to make the rankings statistically significant. She said smaller places tend to get close to the minimum, which is why the rankings fluctuate so much from year to year. Last year's winner didn't make the top 100 this time because it didn't get enough responses, and Tu Tu' Tun jumped from a ranking of 16th last year.

“It might not get 50,000 people staying there in a year, but the people that are staying there are finding it a very welcoming place and a place they want to return to,” Cole said of Tu Tu' Tun, which is named for the Tututuni Indians, a subtribe of the Rogues, who once had an encampment at the site of the lodge, 7 miles upriver from U.S. Highway 101.

According to Van Zante, at least one-third of Tu Tu' Tun guests are regulars, part of an extremely loyal following. She mentioned California, New York, England and Germany as among the biggest sources of guests.

A pair of kayakers rowed by and several other guests lounged by the pool while Van Zante talked about the lodge and her 29 years there for an hour. And she knew the name of every guest who walked by the terrace during that time. There were about 20 cars in the nearly full parking lot.

Describing the lodge as a constant work in progress, Van Zante said prizes are sometimes offered to guests who can name 10 improvements that have been made in the last year. Recent additions include a cabana available for massages or private dinners and a par-3, six-hole golf course that is nearly complete.

Like the kayaks available for borrowing and the binoculars in every room, the golf course will be free to guests, and clubs and balls will be available for borrowing as well.

Van Zante criticized corporate-run resorts for charging extra for such features.

“There are multimillion-dollar resorts now, no-holds-barred resorts,” she said. “They'll put up these to-die-for properties, and then they run them poorly. The service is terrible. It's like they got people off the street. That's one of the problems of the industry.”

Van Zante said most of the staff at the lodge have been there between 10 and 20 years, with chef Margaret Pohl clocking in the most time at 30 years. Pohl is another reason the lodge rated so highly, according to Cole, who described Tu Tu' Tun as a fantastic culinary destination.

Unless guests request a private dinner in their room or the cabana - which is the one thing that does cost extra - dinners are served family-style in the dining room, with one seating at 7 p.m. The dining room is open from May through October, during which time no children under 10 are allowed at the lodge.

Tu Tu' Tun also made the news last December when it was the destination of the Kim family on an ill-fated trip from San Francisco, which resulted in the death of James Kim after several days of being stranded on a snowed-in road.

Van Zante said the lodge does zero advertising, building its reputation one person at a time, though she said it helped to get a four-diamond rating from AAA.

She also attributed Tu Tu' Tun's success to living by a motto she attributed to Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead: “You can't just be the best at what you do - you have to be the only one who does what you do.”