Don't Even Consider American Inn
Although it is a cheap option for visiting one of the most excellent places on earth, Graceland, please avoid this place. We arrived at the hotel, $172.00 for 4 nights was a great deal! Until, the woman (behind the glass) told us to check our room out before we checked in. So, we drove around back to find our room. As we drove around, people began to peak out of the doors of their rooms, as if they were waiting for someone, or just curious. 
We felt uncomfortable right away. Our room was on the second floor, which you had to use stairs to get to because there was no elevator. There were people hanging out in the outside hallways, and on the steps, and I kid you not, holding drinks with paper bags over them. They were talking loudly and cursing. It was obvious that they LIVED in the motel, they were not just staying there.
We had to walk past these people to get to our room. When we entered, at first, it looked "okay" but we noticed that the top lock had been ripped off the wall. We could hear people being loud and obnoxious from our room. One light in the room worked, leaving it very dim. I checked the bathroom and found it to be kind of dingy and dirty. There was a hole in the door of the bathroom that looked like someone had punched it. I peeled back the bedding to check the condition of the bed, and there were cigarrette burns on the sheets. It just felt dirty and not a place to feel comfortable.
When we left the room, we made our way past the people hanging out on the steps and hallways. A maid passed us and asked us what room we were in. We told her the room number to see what she would say. She said, "Oh. Am I doing you right? Everything's okay?" and while that seemed like a nice thing to say, the way she said it made us feel like she was sizing us up to perhaps take a look in and see what was available in our room. When we got to the ground level, we smelled a very strong odor of pot coming out of one of the rooms. We decided to decline the room.
Check out Motel 6 on East Brooks road. Night and day. Great rooms, CLEAN, and not far at all from Elvis Presley BLVD. 
We didn't feel safe there, we didn't feel comfortable. We couldn't imagine going back to that hotel room after dark. The rates are cheap, but so is the hotel.