diff --git a/vsphere/assets/configuration/spec.yaml b/vsphere/assets/configuration/spec.yaml
index 4351500557374..eb5bb64459c23 100644
--- a/vsphere/assets/configuration/spec.yaml
+++ b/vsphere/assets/configuration/spec.yaml
@@ -305,8 +305,8 @@ files:
         description: |
           The events that should be collected by the vSphere integration.
 
-          The "event" specifies the event type you want to include, and the "excluded_messages" is a list of
-          messages of that event type you do not want to collect. For example, if the key
+          The "event" specifies the event type you want to include, and optionally, the "excluded_messages" is
+          a list of messages of that event type you do not want to collect. For example, if the key
           is 'AlarmStatusChangedEvent' and the values for this key are 'Gray to Green' and 'Green to Gray',
           then all events named 'AlarmStatusChangedEvent' that don't have the message 'Gray to Green'
           and 'Green to Gray' will be included.
diff --git a/vsphere/datadog_checks/vsphere/config.py b/vsphere/datadog_checks/vsphere/config.py
index c060a6109238e..ccf1e552b9ae4 100644
--- a/vsphere/datadog_checks/vsphere/config.py
+++ b/vsphere/datadog_checks/vsphere/config.py
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ def __init__(self, instance, init_config, log):
             self.exclude_filters = {}
             for item in self.include_events:
                 event_name = item["event"]
-                excluded_messages = [r'{}'.format(msg) for msg in item["excluded_messages"]]
+                excluded_messages = [r'{}'.format(msg) for msg in item.get("excluded_messages", [])]
                 self.exclude_filters[event_name] = excluded_messages
 
         # Since `collect_per_instance_filters` have the same structure as `metric_filters` we use the same parser
diff --git a/vsphere/datadog_checks/vsphere/data/conf.yaml.example b/vsphere/datadog_checks/vsphere/data/conf.yaml.example
index 5186d1a581115..fe96ba79100b4 100644
--- a/vsphere/datadog_checks/vsphere/data/conf.yaml.example
+++ b/vsphere/datadog_checks/vsphere/data/conf.yaml.example
@@ -271,8 +271,8 @@ instances:
     ## @param include_events - list of mappings - optional
     ## The events that should be collected by the vSphere integration.
     ##
-    ## The "event" specifies the event type you want to include, and the "excluded_messages" is a list of
-    ## messages of that event type you do not want to collect. For example, if the key
+    ## The "event" specifies the event type you want to include, and optionally, the "excluded_messages" is
+    ## a list of messages of that event type you do not want to collect. For example, if the key
     ## is 'AlarmStatusChangedEvent' and the values for this key are 'Gray to Green' and 'Green to Gray',
     ## then all events named 'AlarmStatusChangedEvent' that don't have the message 'Gray to Green'
     ## and 'Green to Gray' will be included.
diff --git a/vsphere/tests/test_event.py b/vsphere/tests/test_event.py
index bb8bd28a227cc..db1fb19dc606c 100644
--- a/vsphere/tests/test_event.py
+++ b/vsphere/tests/test_event.py
@@ -368,6 +368,30 @@ def test_include_events_ok(aggregator, realtime_instance, dd_run_check, mock_api
     assert aggregator.events[0]['msg_title'] == "[Triggered] alarm1 on VM vm1 is now red"
 
 
+@pytest.mark.usefixtures('mock_type', 'mock_threadpool', 'mock_rest_api')
+def test_include_events_no_excluded_message(aggregator, realtime_instance, dd_run_check, mock_api):
+    realtime_instance['include_events'] = [{"event": "AlarmStatusChangedEvent"}]
+    check = VSphereCheck('vsphere', {}, [realtime_instance])
+    event1 = vim.event.AlarmStatusChangedEvent()
+    event1.createdTime = dt.datetime.now()
+    event1.entity = vim.event.ManagedEntityEventArgument()
+    event1.entity.entity = vim.VirtualMachine(moId="vm1")
+    event1.entity.name = "vm1"
+    event1.alarm = vim.event.AlarmEventArgument()
+    event1.alarm.name = "alarm1"
+    setattr(event1, 'from', 'green')
+    event1.to = 'red'
+    event1.datacenter = vim.event.DatacenterEventArgument()
+    event1.datacenter.name = "dc1"
+    event1.fullFormattedMessage = "Green to Red"
+    mock_api.side_effect = mock_api_with_events([event1])
+
+    dd_run_check(check)
+
+    assert len(aggregator.events) == 1
+    assert aggregator.events[0]['msg_title'] == "[Triggered] alarm1 on VM vm1 is now red"
+
+
 @pytest.mark.usefixtures('mock_type', 'mock_threadpool', 'mock_rest_api')
 def test_include_events_filtered(aggregator, realtime_instance, dd_run_check, mock_api):
     realtime_instance['include_events'] = [