diff --git a/internal/gatewayapi/testdata/gateway-allows-same-namespace-with-disallowed-httproute.out.yaml b/internal/gatewayapi/testdata/gateway-allows-same-namespace-with-disallowed-httproute.out.yaml
index 3d0b7588b7..2926aea169 100644
--- a/internal/gatewayapi/testdata/gateway-allows-same-namespace-with-disallowed-httproute.out.yaml
+++ b/internal/gatewayapi/testdata/gateway-allows-same-namespace-with-disallowed-httproute.out.yaml
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@ xdsIR:
   http:
     - name: envoy-gateway-gateway-1-http
       address: 0.0.0.0
+      hostnames:
+      - "*"
       port: 80
 infraIR:
   proxy:
diff --git a/internal/gatewayapi/translator.go b/internal/gatewayapi/translator.go
index 53c4bc6495..c0ee2e7a6a 100644
--- a/internal/gatewayapi/translator.go
+++ b/internal/gatewayapi/translator.go
@@ -428,6 +428,11 @@ func (t *Translator) ProcessListeners(gateways []*GatewayContext, xdsIR *ir.Xds,
 			}
 			if listener.Hostname != nil {
 				irListener.Hostnames = append(irListener.Hostnames, string(*listener.Hostname))
+			} else {
+				// Hostname specifies the virtual hostname to match for protocol types that define this concept.
+				// When unspecified, all hostnames are matched. This field is ignored for protocols that don’t require hostname based matching.
+				// see more https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/references/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1beta1.Listener.
+				irListener.Hostnames = append(irListener.Hostnames, "*")
 			}
 			xdsIR.HTTP = append(xdsIR.HTTP, irListener)
 
@@ -692,9 +697,6 @@ func (t *Translator) ProcessHTTPRoutes(httpRoutes []*v1beta1.HTTPRoute, gateways
 				}
 
 				irListener := xdsIR.GetListener(irListenerName(listener))
-				if len(irListener.Hostnames) == 0 {
-					irListener.Hostnames = hosts
-				}
 				irListener.Routes = append(irListener.Routes, perHostRoutes...)
 
 				// Theoretically there should only be one parent ref per