diff --git a/bigbluebutton/api/bigbluebutton.py b/bigbluebutton/api/bigbluebutton.py
index aec5215be2adc7956eb88177a287afa4d0ff1323..94e5f569fb9025f3b761865bb2cab35bbea4556d 100644
--- a/bigbluebutton/api/bigbluebutton.py
+++ b/bigbluebutton/api/bigbluebutton.py
@@ -142,7 +142,10 @@ class BigBlueButton:
         if res.status_code != 200:
             raise BigBlueButtonError(f"Backend returned HTTP status {res.status_code}.")
 
-        xml = xmltodict.parse(res.text)
+        try:
+            xml = xmltodict.parse(res.text)
+        except Exception as ex:
+            raise BigBlueButtonError("Failed to parse XML response from backend.") from ex
 
         return xml["response"]