We examine the influence of colloidal Au and Ag nanoparticles (NP) on hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods (NR). Individual 60 nm diameter NP and small NP assemblies without formation of large aggregates were deposited on poly-L-lysine covered NR films using the dip-coating method. The evaluation of morphological and optical properties of the obtained ZnO-metal hybrids was done using scanning electron microscopy, photoluminescence (PL) and diffuse reflection spectroscopy. The presence of Au NP selectively suppressed the PL components near 560 nm wavelength associated with ZnO surface defects, whereas equally sized Ag NP resulted in a much smaller change of PL signal, barely above the noise level. The presented results may be useful for tuning the optical properties of hybrid materials in development of sensor or photovoltaic devices.