This species has a rather slender hirtellous habit, somewhat small elliptic petiolate leaves, short to expanded fasiculate to cymose inflorescences, rotate yellow or greenish yellow corollas 6-9 mm long, and rather well developed subglobose red fruits. Hoffmannia valerioi shows some variation in form of the pubescence and arrangement of the inflorescences and has an unusually large elevational range; these plants are infrequently collected and more than one species may currently be included here. The type specimen was collected at ca. 600 m and has very short inflorescences, and matches the material from the La Selva Field Station. This species was originally published with the spelling "valerii", which was acceptable at the time but subsequent changes to the Code of Nomenclature now specify the spelling "valerioi".
Hoffmannia valerioi is similar to Hoffmannia tuerckheimii of Guatemala, with subsessile subcapitate or shortly fasciculate inflorescences; these species have not been compared in detail but perhaps should be. Hoffmannia valerioi is also similar to Hoffmannia longipetiolata, which is glabrescent and much more commonly collected.