diff --git a/grub-btrfsd b/grub-btrfsd
index 5988059..f47df03 100755
--- a/grub-btrfsd
+++ b/grub-btrfsd
@@ -120,6 +120,12 @@ shift $(( OPTIND - 1 ))
 
 snapshots="${1}"
 
+# check if inotify exists, see issue #227
+if ! command -v inotifywait &> /dev/null; then
+    err "[!] inotifywait was not found, exiting. Is inotify-tools installed?" "${RED}" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 if [ ${#logfile} -gt 1  ]; then
     touch "${logfile}"
     echo "GRUB-BTRFSD log $(date)" >> "${logfile}"