CHICAGO — If the entrance of a hotel is its own sort of stage, then few actors have commanded one quite like Gary Sykes, head doorman at the Thompson Chicago.

From the time his shift begins at 3 p.m. till the time he gets off at 11, Mr. Sykes is a whirlwind of “Well, hello there,” and “I’ll be waiting here when you get back.” He seems to exist in a natural state of multitasking: a man whose default activity is summoning a valet while wheeling luggage indoors and pre-positioning a bellman.

To any guest who inquires, Mr. Sykes will give directions with military precision, opine confidently on the local haunts and conjure cabs with a whistle so piercing it must impress the neighborhood fauna.

And yet one can’t hold a smartphone these days without wondering why, exactly, hotels still need a doorman, even one as formidable as Mr. Sykes. There is GPS to route you to the nearest drugstore, Yelp to rate the local dining scene, Uber to deliver a driver, and so on.