diff --git a/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go b/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
index 3291a31ed12..bf5ef3ad17d 100644
--- a/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
+++ b/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
@@ -365,7 +365,7 @@ func (f *KubeletFlags) AddFlags(mainfs *pflag.FlagSet) {
 	fs.BoolVar(&f.RunOnce, "runonce", f.RunOnce, "If true, exit after spawning pods from static pod files or remote urls. Exclusive with --enable-server")
 	fs.BoolVar(&f.EnableServer, "enable-server", f.EnableServer, "Enable the Kubelet's server")
 
-	fs.StringVar(&f.HostnameOverride, "hostname-override", f.HostnameOverride, "If non-empty, will use this string as identification instead of the actual hostname.")
+	fs.StringVar(&f.HostnameOverride, "hostname-override", f.HostnameOverride, "If non-empty, will use this string as identification instead of the actual hostname. If --cloud-provider is set, the cloud provider determines the name of the node (consult cloud provider documentation to determine if and how the hostname is used).")
 
 	fs.StringVar(&f.NodeIP, "node-ip", f.NodeIP, "IP address of the node. If set, kubelet will use this IP address for the node")
 
@@ -374,7 +374,7 @@ func (f *KubeletFlags) AddFlags(mainfs *pflag.FlagSet) {
 	fs.StringVar(&f.CertDirectory, "cert-dir", f.CertDirectory, "The directory where the TLS certs are located. "+
 		"If --tls-cert-file and --tls-private-key-file are provided, this flag will be ignored.")
 
-	fs.StringVar(&f.CloudProvider, "cloud-provider", f.CloudProvider, "The provider for cloud services. Specify empty string for running with no cloud provider.")
+	fs.StringVar(&f.CloudProvider, "cloud-provider", f.CloudProvider, "The provider for cloud services. Specify empty string for running with no cloud provider. If set, the cloud provider determines the name of the node (consult cloud provider documentation to determine if and how the hostname is used).")
 	fs.StringVar(&f.CloudConfigFile, "cloud-config", f.CloudConfigFile, "The path to the cloud provider configuration file.  Empty string for no configuration file.")
 
 	fs.StringVar(&f.RootDirectory, "root-dir", f.RootDirectory, "Directory path for managing kubelet files (volume mounts,etc).")