diff --git a/playbooks/vhost_reboot.yml b/playbooks/vhost_reboot.yml
index 3a4a658124..0396573a4e 100644
--- a/playbooks/vhost_reboot.yml
+++ b/playbooks/vhost_reboot.yml
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@
     with_items: "{{ vmlist.list_vms }}"
 
   - name: add the vmhost to target group
-    local_action: add_host hostname={{ target }} groupname=target
+    # Use a simple regexp to ignore spaces people might accidentally paste.
+    local_action: add_host hostname={{ target | regex_search('[-a-z0-9.]+') }} groupname=target
 
 # Call out to another playbook.  Disable any proxies that may live here
 - name: update proxy dns if needed
diff --git a/playbooks/vhost_update.yml b/playbooks/vhost_update.yml
index d43a86773b..6a7267ecf1 100644
--- a/playbooks/vhost_update.yml
+++ b/playbooks/vhost_update.yml
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@
     with_items: '{{vmlist.list_vms}}'
 
   - name: Add the vmhost to target group
-    local_action: add_host hostname={{ target }} groupname=target
+    # Use a simple regexp to ignore spaces people might accidentally paste.
+    local_action: add_host hostname={{ target | regex_search('[-a-z0-9.]+') }} groupname=target
 
 # Call out to another playbook.  Disable any proxies that may live here
 # - include_playbook: update-proxy-dns.yml status=disable proxies=myvms_new:&proxies