diff --git a/odoo.hy b/odoo.hy
index 6c0594b..50af04e 100644
--- a/odoo.hy
+++ b/odoo.hy
@@ -19,6 +19,13 @@
 
 (require [odoo.addons.hy_base.xml [*]])
 
+(defmacro if-python2 [python2-form python3-form]
+  "If running on python2, execute python2-form, else, execute python3-form"
+  (import sys)
+  (if (< (get sys.version_info 0) 3)
+    python2-form
+    python3-form))
+
 (defmacro ox-odoo [&rest args] `(xmlr "odoo" ~@args))
 (defmacro ox-data [&rest args] `(xmlnc "data" ~@args))
 (defmacro ox-record [&rest args] `(xmlnc "record" ~@args))
@@ -63,7 +70,9 @@
   "Write XML file according to filename and given tree"
   `(do
      (import [os [path]])
-     (setv ~g!output-xml (.tostring ET ~tree)
-           ~g!output-path (.dirname path (.abspath path __file__))
+     (if-python2
+       (setv ~g!output-xml (.tostring ET ~tree))
+       (setv ~g!output-xml (.decode (.tostring ET ~tree) "utf-8")))
+     (setv ~g!output-path (.dirname path (.abspath path __file__))
            ~g!fpath (+ ~g!output-path "/" ~filename))
       (with [f (open ~g!fpath "w")] (.write f ~g!output-xml))))