Last time I traveled, I simply took an iPod Touch, which was a lot less hassle in every respect. If you're just going to check e-mail occasionally, that's all you really need, plus you can load some tunes and a movie or a TV program onto it.

Your iPhone could serve the same function, as long as you used wi-fi instead of the 3G network for e-mail, I suppose.

I stay in low-budget hotels, most of which seem to have wi-fi, so I've never faced your situation. It's odd, isn't it, that the low-budget business hotels that look like college dorm rooms almost always have free wi-fi and the Hilton-level places almost always charge for it.