I too would whole-heartedly endorse the idea of checking and rechecking the rates. I just recently completed a stay at the Mystic CT Hilton. When I first booked my room, I was paying $199 for the night. That's actually higher than I would normally want to pay, but since it was a triple-point offer, plus I still got my double dip, I went ahead and booked it.

When I rechecked for the heck of it about a week before my arrival, the rate for that triple-point offer had dropped to $159 for the night. I cancelled my first reservation and rebooked at the lower rate.

As another example, I'm heading to Atlanta this coming weekend. Apparently there are several large conventions in town this week, so hotels were quite pricey. I had booked a room at an HGI in Alpharetta and was going to rely on a friend to drive me out there and back.

Late last week, I rechecked the various hotels and the Airport Hilton had dropped rates from something like $200 per night to $89 per night. I cancelled the HGI and booked the Airport Hilton.

That reservation is for Friday night, and then I move to Chattanooga for two nights. That hotel has also just dropped its rates by about 10 bucks per night, but I haven't yet bothered to change that reservation, since the savings isn't that big.

So without a doubt it pays to revisit and check the rates as your date approaches.

On a separate note, I have never found different rates when I was logged in vs. not being logged in. However I did have an experience with an HGI in Chicago, where being logged in showed an available room. When I wasn't logged in though, the hotel was shown as sold out. Since that HGI has the top two floors allocated to HH members, I'm guessing that's why I was able to get a room when I logged in.