diff --git a/nova/tests/unit/test_api_validation.py b/nova/tests/unit/test_api_validation.py
index 9e331215341..7c6bad7424d 100644
--- a/nova/tests/unit/test_api_validation.py
+++ b/nova/tests/unit/test_api_validation.py
@@ -465,7 +465,7 @@ def test_validate_patternProperties_fails(self):
         # Note(jrosenboom): This is referencing an internal python error
         # string, which is no stable interface. We need a patch in the
         # jsonschema library in order to fix this properly.
-        if sys.version[:3] == '3.5':
+        if sys.version[:3] in ['3.5', '3.6']:
             detail = "expected string or bytes-like object"
         else:
             detail = "expected string or buffer"