diff --git a/app/Models/Note.php b/app/Models/Note.php
index efd9ee6d..0acb627a 100644
--- a/app/Models/Note.php
+++ b/app/Models/Note.php
@@ -132,7 +132,11 @@ class Note extends Model
      */
     public function setNoteAttribute($value)
     {
-        $this->attributes['note'] = normalizer_normalize($value, Normalizer::FORM_C);
+        $normalized = normalizer_normalize($value, Normalizer::FORM_C);
+        if ($normalized === '') { //we don’t want to save empty strings to the db
+            $normalized = null;
+        }
+        $this->attributes['note'] = $normalized;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/changelog.md b/changelog.md
index d67473d4..c5a137d8 100644
--- a/changelog.md
+++ b/changelog.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 ## Version {next}
   - Update dependencies and recompile frontend assets, fix tests
   - Only normalise tags in the URL, not in the actual link text
+  - Make sure when a note has no content, null is saved to the db, not `''`
 
 ## Version 0.15 (2017-12-24)
   - Add simple checkins, i.e. checkins with no note content, for now add a default note for these
diff --git a/tests/Feature/SwarmTest.php b/tests/Feature/SwarmTest.php
index 3b929602..ff86eaaa 100644
--- a/tests/Feature/SwarmTest.php
+++ b/tests/Feature/SwarmTest.php
@@ -146,12 +146,14 @@ class SwarmTest extends TestCase
         $response
             ->assertStatus(201)
             ->assertJson(['response' => 'created']);
+        //dump($response->__get('headers')->get('location'));
         $this->assertDatabaseHas('places', [
             'external_urls' => '{"foursquare": "https://foursquare.com/v/654321"}'
         ]);
         $this->assertDatabaseHas('notes', [
             'swarm_url' => 'https://www.swarmapp.com/checkin/def'
         ]);
+        $this->get($response->__get('headers')->get('location'))->assertSee('round pushpin');
     }
 
     public function test_faked_ownyourswarm_request_saves_just_post_when_error_in_checkin_data()