Does your friend have a laptop with him, as every time I've ever done this you have to hook up a computer first to activate your in room port or wireless bridge. The main two things he can try if he does have a computer are to hook up the computer and look up his network setting such as ip, gateway, dns, and whatver else is assigned by the hotel. He can then manually enter all of that info into his Xbox and sometimes that is all it takes.
One time all I had to do was set up the connection with my computer and then use the computers MAC address in the Xbox with all other settings to auto detect. Without a computer to get his connection going, I don't think there is much he can do. Hope this helps.
I've used Xbox Live at Best Western, Hampton Inn, La Quinta, and I think a couple of others. The only hotel I've been shot down in was a Holiday Inn Express, but there network was really funny the week I tried to connect.
