You can use a potion to increase your cunning/charm. Also, make sure you’re not hungry or horny, as these statuses reduce your social stats. Every time you fail a social stat check you gain experience for that social stat, as well, so you can just brute-force your way in as well, though the check is intended to be hard enough to require the potions, and even then may take a couple tries.
I may revisit this particular part of the game in the future as it seems like a choke point for players.