SO HERE I am riding in my limousine and surfing the Internet using WiFi. Yes, you read right. There is WiFi in my limo!

I must clarify, though, that it's not my limo. It was kindly provided by Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur to transport me from office to hotel. I've checked and found that most hotels in the city don't have a WiFi service in their limos, unlike Traders.

And what's more, it's on 4G.

And when we drive down a tunnel, both the driver and I are shocked (pleasantly so) that the signal doesn't even weaken. Wow! And it keeps getting better and better. As soon as I arrive at Traders and is whisked to my room, something just a little short of a miracle happens - my iPhone immediately latches on to the WiFi services in the hotel.

No signing in, no passwords.

It is a breeze messing around with the iPad in my room. Ready for the final surprise?

Free WiFi is everywhere, even when on the move, at the Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

It's FREE! Slap me silly, but yes, it's true.

You may be wondering why I'm making such a fuss about WiFi in this day and age. Let me explain.

In the course of my work and travels, locally and overseas, I've stayed in many hotels of different grades. And the one thing that most of them have in common is that I always had problems with WiFi usage!

Many hotels provide the service only in your room, and then the charges are steep. It could be as "cheap" as RM87 (S$35) a day or as expensive as RM65 an hour. Even worse, sometimes when you're desperate enough to pay up (let's face it, not all countries have cyber cafes readily available), you find that the signal is too weak to be of any use.

Recently, I was in Singapore for work and stayed in a five-star establishment. They did not provide WiFi in the room. It was only available in the lobby. You need to pay for the service (they waived the charges because I was a reporter), and then you will probably find you have difficulty logging in and the signal is weak. And you have to repeatedly log on every day.

At another highly-rated hotel in Bangkok, I had to do all kinds of stunts just to get a strong enough signal at their "only-available-at-the-lobby" spot, including standing on chairs and waving my phone in the air in the hope that it might catch a signal. I had to send an urgent work email out, you see, and was desperate. I should have charged them for the entertainment I provided the other guests.

You would think after you have paid so much to put up at their place, a hotel would consider WiFi services as a part of the package instead of behaving like banks that charge for everything. There are many people who own smartphones these days, so broadband in rooms alone is just not good enough anymore. Everyone is on the go, and WiFi is really crucial.

But that's the sad situation, even in Kuala Lumpur. Only two or three hotels have complimentary WiFi services throughout their establishment. Others provide the service in common areas and rooms at a cost. Quite a number do so only in rooms, and also at a cost. Charges range from RM40 to RM70 a day to RM18 to RM35 an hour.

One of the hotels was decent enough to tell me, "We have it in our rooms but it's kind of weak, just to warn you in advance."

So hoteliers please take note. It's not just me but many travellers these days who look at the availability of WiFi services when making their choice of hotels.

Is it too much to ask for a rethink?