A hotel in Malaysia reached out to us last year with an odd request: could we sell them just cabinet doors? Their housekeeping team had been kneeing them shut for months. Three years earlier, the hotel had outfitted every janitor closet with powder-coated steel cabinets. The bodies were fine. The hinges — on more than a dozen doors — had rusted solid. We asked one question: “Is the room ventilated?” No windows. Mops air-dried standing up. By morning, condensation dripped down the walls. This isn’t a one-off. It’s the single most common question we get from hotel buyers: powder-coated or stainless steel — what’s the actual difference? Stainless Steel vs Powder-Coated Janitor Cabinet：The problem with powder-coated isn’t that it rusts. It’s that you never see it coming. In dry climates — inland hotels, northern regions, janitor rooms with decent air conditioning — powder-coated cabinets hold up fine. Three or four years, no issues. The coating does its job. The hinges don’t give out fast. But a humid janitor closet flips the equation. Coastal hotels. Southeast Asia. Old buildings where the janitor room never got mechanical ventilation. Moisture seeps through screw holes and hinge gaps. The steel rusts underneath the coating,…