diff --git a/scrapy/utils/benchserver.py b/scrapy/utils/benchserver.py
index 4385d72a9..a9a2c938e 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/benchserver.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/benchserver.py
@@ -16,15 +16,15 @@ class Root(Resource):
         total = _getarg(request, 'total', 100, int)
         show = _getarg(request, 'show', 10, int)
         nlist = [random.randint(1, total) for _ in range(show)]
-        request.write("<html><head></head><body>")
+        request.write(b"<html><head></head><body>")
         args = request.args.copy()
         for nl in nlist:
             args['n'] = nl
             argstr = urlencode(args, doseq=True)
             request.write("<a href='/follow?{0}'>follow {1}</a><br>"
-                          .format(argstr, nl))
-        request.write("</body></html>")
-        return ''
+                          .format(argstr, nl).encode('utf8'))
+        request.write(b"</body></html>")
+        return b''
 
 
 def _getarg(request, name, default=None, type=str):
diff --git a/tests/test_commands.py b/tests/test_commands.py
index 5755b3881..057112d12 100644
--- a/tests/test_commands.py
+++ b/tests/test_commands.py
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ class StartprojectTest(ProjectTest):
         self.assertEqual(1, self.call('startproject', self.project_name))
         self.assertEqual(1, self.call('startproject', 'wrong---project---name'))
         self.assertEqual(1, self.call('startproject', 'sys'))
-    
+
 
 class StartprojectTemplatesTest(ProjectTest):
 
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ class StartprojectTemplatesTest(ProjectTest):
         super(StartprojectTemplatesTest, self).setUp()
         self.tmpl = join(self.temp_path, 'templates')
         self.tmpl_proj = join(self.tmpl, 'project')
-        
+
     def test_startproject_template_override(self):
         copytree(join(scrapy.__path__[0], 'templates'), self.tmpl)
         os.mknod(join(self.tmpl_proj, 'root_template'))
@@ -276,3 +276,4 @@ class BenchCommandTest(CommandTest):
                 '-s', 'CLOSESPIDER_TIMEOUT=0.01')
         log = to_native_str(p.stderr.read())
         self.assertIn('INFO: Crawled', log)
+        self.assertNotIn('Unhandled Error', log)