diff --git a/cloudstack/resource_cloudstack_host.go b/cloudstack/resource_cloudstack_host.go
index 61e81946..c2b15214 100644
--- a/cloudstack/resource_cloudstack_host.go
+++ b/cloudstack/resource_cloudstack_host.go
@@ -169,7 +169,12 @@ func resourceCloudStackHostCreate(d *schema.ResourceData, meta interface{}) erro
 	}
 
 	if host_tags, ok := d.GetOk("host_tags"); ok {
-		p.SetHosttags(host_tags.([]string))
+		rawTags := host_tags.([]interface{})
+		tags := make([]string, 0, len(rawTags))
+		for _, tag := range rawTags {
+			tags = append(tags, tag.(string))
+		}
+		p.SetHosttags(tags)
 	}
 
 	if username, ok := d.GetOk("username"); ok {
@@ -259,14 +264,29 @@ func resourceCloudStackHostUpdate(d *schema.ResourceData, meta interface{}) erro
 
 	p := cs.Host.NewUpdateHostParams(d.Id())
 
+	needsUpdate := false
+
 	if d.HasChange("allocation_state") {
 		log.Printf("[DEBUG] Updating Host allocation state: %s", d.Id())
 		p.SetAllocationstate(d.Get("allocation_state").(string))
+		needsUpdate = true
 	}
 
 	if d.HasChange("host_tags") {
 		log.Printf("[DEBUG] Updating Host tags: %s", d.Id())
-		p.SetHosttags(d.Get("host_tags").([]string))
+		rawTags := d.Get("host_tags").([]interface{})
+		tags := make([]string, 0, len(rawTags))
+		for _, tag := range rawTags {
+			tags = append(tags, tag.(string))
+		}
+		p.SetHosttags(tags)
+		needsUpdate = true
+	}
+
+	if needsUpdate {
+		if _, err := cs.Host.UpdateHost(p); err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("Error updating host %s: %s", d.Id(), err)
+		}
 	}
 
 	return resourceCloudStackHostRead(d, meta)
diff --git a/cloudstack/resource_cloudstack_host_unit_test.go b/cloudstack/resource_cloudstack_host_unit_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1245555c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cloudstack/resource_cloudstack_host_unit_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+//
+// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+// or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+// distributed with this work for additional information
+// regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+// to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+// "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+// with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+// software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+// "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+// KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+// specific language governing permissions and limitations
+// under the License.
+//
+
+package cloudstack
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/apache/cloudstack-go/v2/cloudstack"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform-plugin-sdk/v2/helper/schema"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform-plugin-sdk/v2/terraform"
+)
+
+// host_tags is a schema.TypeList, which the SDK returns as []interface{}, so
+// asserting host_tags.([]string) panics. Creating a host with host_tags set
+// must get past that conversion without panicking.
+func TestHostCreateHostTagsDoesNotPanic(t *testing.T) {
+	cs := cloudstack.NewClient("http://127.0.0.1:1", "key", "secret", false)
+
+	d := schema.TestResourceDataRaw(t, resourceCloudStackHost().Schema, map[string]interface{}{
+		"hypervisor":     "KVM",
+		"pod_id":         "pod-1",
+		"url":            "http://host-1",
+		"zone_id":        "zone-1",
+		"host_tags":      []interface{}{"tag1", "tag2"},
+		"create_timeout": 1,
+	})
+
+	if err := resourceCloudStackHostCreate(d, cs); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("expected an error, got nil")
+	}
+}
+
+// Updating a host must actually call UpdateHost. The update function used to
+// build the params and then return without sending them, so the change was a
+// silent no-op. With a real diff (allocation_state changed) the update must
+// reach UpdateHost, which here fails against the unreachable endpoint.
+func TestHostUpdateCallsUpdateHost(t *testing.T) {
+	cs := cloudstack.NewClient("http://127.0.0.1:1", "key", "secret", false)
+
+	sm := schema.InternalMap(resourceCloudStackHost().Schema)
+	state := &terraform.InstanceState{
+		ID:         "host-1",
+		Attributes: map[string]string{"allocation_state": "Enabled"},
+	}
+	diff := &terraform.InstanceDiff{
+		Attributes: map[string]*terraform.ResourceAttrDiff{
+			"allocation_state": {Old: "Enabled", New: "Disabled"},
+		},
+	}
+	d, err := sm.Data(state, diff)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("building resource data: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	err = resourceCloudStackHostUpdate(d, cs)
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("expected an error from the update request, got nil")
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "updating host") {
+		t.Fatalf("expected the error to come from the UpdateHost call, got: %s", err)
+	}
+}