diff --git a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/DvObjectContainer.java b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/DvObjectContainer.java
index a18b09cb4b8..da77df786d8 100644
--- a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/DvObjectContainer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/DvObjectContainer.java
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ public boolean isEffectivelyPermissionRoot() {
     
     private String metadataLanguage=null;
     
-    private String guestbookAtRequest = null;
+    private Boolean guestbookAtRequest = null;
     
     public String getEffectiveStorageDriverId() {
         String id = storageDriver;
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ public static boolean isMetadataLanguageSet(String mdLang) {
     
     public boolean getEffectiveGuestbookEntryAtRequest() {
         boolean gbAtRequest = false;
-        if (guestbookAtRequest==null || UNDEFINED_CODE.equals(guestbookAtRequest)) {
+        if (guestbookAtRequest==null) {
             if (this.getOwner() != null) {
                 gbAtRequest = this.getOwner().getEffectiveGuestbookEntryAtRequest();
             } else {
@@ -111,15 +111,12 @@ public boolean getEffectiveGuestbookEntryAtRequest() {
                 }
             }
         } else {
-            gbAtRequest = Boolean.parseBoolean(guestbookAtRequest);
+            gbAtRequest = guestbookAtRequest;
         }
         return gbAtRequest;
     }
     
-    public String getGuestbookEntryAtRequest() {
-        if (guestbookAtRequest == null) {
-            return UNDEFINED_CODE;
-        }
+    public Boolean getGuestbookEntryAtRequest() {
         return guestbookAtRequest;
     }
 
@@ -128,7 +125,7 @@ public void setGuestbookEntryAtRequest(String gbAtRequest) {
             this.guestbookAtRequest = null;
         } else {
             //Force to true or false
-            this.guestbookAtRequest = Boolean.valueOf(Boolean.parseBoolean(gbAtRequest)).toString();
+            this.guestbookAtRequest = Boolean.valueOf(Boolean.parseBoolean(gbAtRequest));
         }
     }
     
diff --git a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/Datasets.java b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/Datasets.java
index 55e329bea68..a1191a6f4e6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/Datasets.java
+++ b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/api/Datasets.java
@@ -3888,8 +3888,8 @@ public Response getGuestbookEntryOption(@Context ContainerRequestContext crc, @P
         } catch (WrappedResponse ex) {
             return error(Response.Status.NOT_FOUND, "No such dataset");
         }
-        String gbAtRequest = dataset.getGuestbookEntryAtRequest();
-        if(gbAtRequest == null || gbAtRequest.equals(DvObjectContainer.UNDEFINED_CODE)) {
+        Boolean gbAtRequest = dataset.getGuestbookEntryAtRequest();
+        if(gbAtRequest == null) {
             return ok("Not set on dataset, using the default: " + dataset.getEffectiveGuestbookEntryAtRequest());
         }
         return ok(dataset.getEffectiveGuestbookEntryAtRequest());