Most all hotel rooms now have a dataport on the phone so you can make dialup connection from your laptop. I use a account with an ISP that has no monthly fees to do the access. They have local numbers in just about every city of any size, and an 800 number (with a premium) where there is no local number. You pay in advance for the number of minutes you need and refill by credit card when you run out.

Many larger hotels have highspeed internet connection in their rooms now and this will grow rapidly, in my opinion. You just plug their cable into the jack in your notebook, just as you do with your cable or DSL connection at home. Usually a daily fee on the order of $10-12 for unlimited time online. They usually allow you to charge a credit card for the usage. This is usually found in newer hotels and those that have added new additions as cabling an existing building can be pretty expensive.

There are few hotels with wireless links to their hotel rooms. A few have them in the public areas and restaurant/bar areas but I don't see the room access going this way. The daily charges for high-speed links are pretty profitable.