You know, I don't know if you deliberately wrote 'less expensive hotels'... in any case, that's a good point - in my experience you're much more likely to find free wi-fi in cheaper hotels. The more expensive a hotel room is, the more you have to pay for everything else (wi-fi, water bottles, other services).
Cheap hotel (e.g. Comfort) - free wi-fi.
Expensive hotel (e.g. Hyatt) - lousy, T-mobile wi-fi (and you can't use your laptop and your Nx00 at the same time. Secure IMAP won't work either. Etc. etc.)