diff --git a/hibernate-spatial/src/test/resources/hibernate.properties b/hibernate-spatial/src/test/resources/hibernate.properties
index 161beaac31..da2810bf86 100644
--- a/hibernate-spatial/src/test/resources/hibernate.properties
+++ b/hibernate-spatial/src/test/resources/hibernate.properties
@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@ hibernate.connection.pool_size 5
 hibernate.show_sql false
 hibernate.format_sql true
 
+# the tests use a lot of regex pattern matching for test assertions
+# and the different parameter markers cause problems with that
+hibernate.dialect.native_param_markers=false
+
 hibernate.max_fetch_depth 5
 
 hibernate.cache.region_prefix hibernate.test
@@ -91,4 +95,4 @@ hibernate.cache.region.factory_class org.hibernate.testing.cache.CachingRegionFa
 #hibernate.connection.driver_class org.postgresql.Driver
 #hibernate.connection.url jdbc:postgresql://localhost:26257/defaultdb?sslmode=disable&preparedStatementCacheQueries=0
 #hibernate.connection.username root
-#hibernate.connection.password
\ No newline at end of file
+#hibernate.connection.password