diff --git a/libvirt.spec.in b/libvirt.spec.in
index 74e37b722d8277ec8222096562c93322618cd9c4..ddb50cde7dbe942e78927c5aa30ed97c45f27bae 100644
--- a/libvirt.spec.in
+++ b/libvirt.spec.in
@@ -744,9 +744,11 @@ fi
 /sbin/ldconfig
 /sbin/chkconfig --add libvirt-guests
 if [ $1 -ge 1 ]; then
-    # this doesn't do anything but allowing for libvirt-guests to be
-    # stopped on the first shutdown
-    /sbin/service libvirt-guests start > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
+    if /sbin/chkconfig --list libvirt-guests | /bin/grep -q :on ; then
+        # this doesn't do anything but allowing for libvirt-guests to be
+        # stopped on the first shutdown
+        /sbin/service libvirt-guests start > /dev/null 2>&1 || true
+    fi
 fi
 
 %postun client -p /sbin/ldconfig