diff --git a/isso/utils/parse.py b/isso/utils/parse.py
index 7ed2711..b6e39b0 100644
--- a/isso/utils/parse.py
+++ b/isso/utils/parse.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ except ImportError:
 
 import html5lib
 
-from isso.compat import map, filter, PY2K
+from isso.compat import map, filter, PY2K, string_types, text_type as str
 
 if PY2K:  # http://bugs.python.org/issue12984
     from xml.dom.minidom import NamedNodeMap
@@ -67,6 +67,9 @@ def host(name):
     ('example.tld', 80, True)
     """
 
+    if not (isinstance(name, string_types)):
+        name = str(name)
+
     if not name.startswith(('http://', 'https://')):
         name = 'http://' + name