many are happy to have company while they plug in the hours to keep their licence current
It may be different at your club, but what I find is that the types that hang around the club house are typically not the ones that need to plug in the hours to keep their license current.
I regularly take people up for a "free" short flight but I only take people I know, and know that they'll either take me on a "free" flight later on, or will do something else in return, or whom I owe a favour, or who do a lot of volunteer work for the club, or who are good mates to sit at the bar with, or something like that. Aka "friends". Not random strangers that wander in from the street looking for an experience flight in a different type.