diff --git a/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/clientapi/writers/room_directory.go b/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/clientapi/writers/room_directory.go
index a40e8a288..8298fec9c 100644
--- a/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/clientapi/writers/room_directory.go
+++ b/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/clientapi/writers/room_directory.go
@@ -89,6 +89,8 @@ func GetPublicRooms(
 	}
 }
 
+// fillPublicRoomsReq fills the Limit, Since and Filter attributes of a request to the roomserver's
+// GetPublicRooms API by parsing the incoming HTTP request
 func fillPublicRoomsReq(httpReq *http.Request, queryReq *api.GetPublicRoomsRequest) *util.JSONResponse {
 	if httpReq.Method == "GET" {
 		limit, err := strconv.Atoi(httpReq.FormValue("limit"))
diff --git a/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/roomserver/publicroom/public_room.go b/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/roomserver/publicroom/public_room.go
index 1598d2efc..7045c367b 100644
--- a/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/roomserver/publicroom/public_room.go
+++ b/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/roomserver/publicroom/public_room.go
@@ -113,13 +113,12 @@ func (r *RoomserverPublicRoomAPI) GetPublicRooms(
 	var offset int64
 
 	limit = req.Limit
-	ofst, err := strconv.Atoi(req.Since)
-	// Atoi returns 0 and an error when trying to parse an empty string
+	offset, err := strconv.ParseInt(req.Since, 10, 64)
+	// ParseInt returns 0 and an error when trying to parse an empty string
 	// In that case, we want to assign 0 so we ignore the error
 	if err != nil && len(req.Since) > 0 {
 		return err
 	}
-	offset = int64(ofst)
 
 	roomIDs, err := r.DB.GetPublicRoomIDs()
 	if err != nil {