diff --git a/pypureomapi.py b/pypureomapi.py
index 3c906a3..bb870a4 100644
--- a/pypureomapi.py
+++ b/pypureomapi.py
@@ -1311,7 +1311,7 @@ def add_host_supersede(self, ip, mac, name, hostname=None, router=None, domain=N
 
 		msg = OmapiMessage.open(b"host")
 		msg.message.append((b"create", struct.pack("!I", 1)))
-		msg.obj.append((b"name", name))
+		msg.obj.append((b"name", name.encode('utf-8')))
 		msg.obj.append((b"hardware-address", pack_mac(mac)))
 		msg.obj.append((b"hardware-type", struct.pack("!I", 1)))
 		msg.obj.append((b"ip-address", pack_ip(ip)))