diff --git a/appservice/consumers/roomserver.go b/appservice/consumers/roomserver.go
index 50d5af3a4..60522f6d7 100644
--- a/appservice/consumers/roomserver.go
+++ b/appservice/consumers/roomserver.go
@@ -79,7 +79,8 @@ func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) Start() error {
 		token := jetstream.Tokenise(as.ID)
 		if err := jetstream.JetStreamConsumer(
 			s.ctx, s.jetstream, s.topic,
-			s.cfg.Matrix.JetStream.Durable("Appservice_"+token), 50,
+			s.cfg.Matrix.JetStream.Durable("Appservice_"+token),
+			50, // maximum number of events to send in a single transaction
 			func(ctx context.Context, msgs []*nats.Msg) bool {
 				return s.onMessage(ctx, state, msgs)
 			},
@@ -96,7 +97,7 @@ func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) Start() error {
 func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) onMessage(
 	ctx context.Context, state *appserviceState, msgs []*nats.Msg,
 ) bool {
-	log.WithField("appservice", state.ID).Debugf("Appservice worker received %d message(s) from roomserver", len(msgs))
+	log.WithField("appservice", state.ID).Tracef("Appservice worker received %d message(s) from roomserver", len(msgs))
 	events := make([]*gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent, 0, len(msgs))
 	for _, msg := range msgs {
 		// Parse out the event JSON
@@ -108,10 +109,7 @@ func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) onMessage(
 		}
 		switch output.Type {
 		case api.OutputTypeNewRoomEvent:
-			if output.NewRoomEvent == nil {
-				continue
-			}
-			if !s.appserviceIsInterestedInEvent(ctx, output.NewRoomEvent.Event, state.ApplicationService) {
+			if output.NewRoomEvent == nil || !s.appserviceIsInterestedInEvent(ctx, output.NewRoomEvent.Event, state.ApplicationService) {
 				continue
 			}
 			events = append(events, output.NewRoomEvent.Event)
@@ -147,19 +145,16 @@ func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) onMessage(
 	}
 
 	// If there are no events selected for sending then we should
-	// ack the events so that we don't get sent them again in the
+	// ack the messages so that we don't get sent them again in the
 	// future.
 	if len(events) == 0 {
 		return true
 	}
 
-	// Send event to any relevant application services
-	if err := s.sendEvents(ctx, state, events); err != nil {
-		log.WithField("appservice", state.ID).WithError(err).Errorf("Appservice failed to send events")
-		return false
-	}
-
-	return true
+	// Send event to any relevant application services. If we hit
+	// an error here, return false, so that we negatively ack.
+	log.WithField("appservice", state.ID).Debugf("Appservice worker sending %d events(s) from roomserver", len(events))
+	return s.sendEvents(ctx, state, events) == nil
 }
 
 // sendEvents passes events to the appservice by using the transactions
@@ -168,16 +163,12 @@ func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) sendEvents(
 	ctx context.Context, state *appserviceState,
 	events []*gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent,
 ) error {
-	// If there are no events that we are interested in then don't bother
-	// doing anything else at this point.
-	if len(events) == 0 {
-		return nil
-	}
-
 	// Create the transaction body.
-	transaction, err := json.Marshal(gomatrixserverlib.ApplicationServiceTransaction{
-		Events: gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedToClientEvents(events, gomatrixserverlib.FormatAll),
-	})
+	transaction, err := json.Marshal(
+		gomatrixserverlib.ApplicationServiceTransaction{
+			Events: gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedToClientEvents(events, gomatrixserverlib.FormatAll),
+		},
+	)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -196,8 +187,7 @@ func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) sendEvents(
 	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
 	resp, err := s.client.Do(req)
 	if err != nil {
-		state.backoffAndPause(err)
-		return err
+		return state.backoffAndPause(err)
 	}
 
 	// If the response was fine then we can clear any backoffs in place and
@@ -206,20 +196,20 @@ func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) sendEvents(
 	case http.StatusOK:
 		state.backoff = 0
 	default:
-		state.backoffAndPause(err)
+		_ = state.backoffAndPause(err)
 	}
 	return nil
 }
 
 // backoff pauses the calling goroutine for a 2^some backoff exponent seconds
-func (s *appserviceState) backoffAndPause(err error) {
+func (s *appserviceState) backoffAndPause(err error) error {
 	if s.backoff < 6 {
 		s.backoff++
 	}
-
 	duration := time.Second * time.Duration(math.Pow(2, float64(s.backoff)))
 	log.WithField("appservice", s.ID).WithError(err).Warnf("Unable to send transaction to appservice successfully, backing off for %s", duration.String())
 	time.Sleep(duration)
+	return err
 }
 
 // appserviceIsInterestedInEvent returns a boolean depending on whether a given
@@ -227,15 +217,12 @@ func (s *appserviceState) backoffAndPause(err error) {
 //
 // TODO: This should be cached, see https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/issues/1682
 func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) appserviceIsInterestedInEvent(ctx context.Context, event *gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent, appservice *config.ApplicationService) bool {
-	// No reason to queue events if they'll never be sent to the application
-	// service
-	if appservice.URL == "" {
+	switch {
+	case appservice.URL == "":
 		return false
-	}
-
-	// Check Room ID and Sender of the event
-	if appservice.IsInterestedInUserID(event.Sender()) ||
-		appservice.IsInterestedInRoomID(event.RoomID()) {
+	case appservice.IsInterestedInUserID(event.Sender()):
+		return true
+	case appservice.IsInterestedInRoomID(event.RoomID()):
 		return true
 	}
 
@@ -256,7 +243,8 @@ func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) appserviceIsInterestedInEvent(ctx context.Cont
 		}
 	} else {
 		log.WithFields(log.Fields{
-			"room_id": event.RoomID(),
+			"appservice": appservice.ID,
+			"room_id":    event.RoomID(),
 		}).WithError(err).Errorf("Unable to get aliases for room")
 	}
 
@@ -291,7 +279,8 @@ func (s *OutputRoomEventConsumer) appserviceJoinedAtEvent(ctx context.Context, e
 		}
 	} else {
 		log.WithFields(log.Fields{
-			"room_id": event.RoomID(),
+			"appservice": appservice.ID,
+			"room_id":    event.RoomID(),
 		}).WithError(err).Errorf("Unable to get membership for room")
 	}
 	return false