Marriott International Inc. posted gains for the June quarter, driven by leisure travel, as the company keeps an eye on the spread of the Delta variant, executives said.

"The rate of global lodging recovery accelerated during the second quarter and momentum has continued into July,” Chief Executive Anthony Capuano said Tuesday. “Leisure demand once again led the way, although business transient and group demand also continued to grow” in the U.S. and Canada, which together comprise the company’s largest region.

The hotel chain, whose portfolio encompasses roughly 7,800 properties world-wide, sees demand for business and group stays rising in the fall as it anticipates more workers returning to offices on a hybrid basis, Mr. Capuano said. “Many of our associates are starting to get back on the road, and our largest corporate clients tell us they are beginning to do the same,” he said.

The company, based in Bethesda, Md., has also seen more blending of leisure trips with business travel, a trend it expects to continue, Mr. Capuano said.

But Marriott has seen some cancellations for group bookings later this year that could be attributable to the spread of the Delta variant, finance chief Kathleen Oberg said. “I expect that more uncertainty about comfort of travel later this year could be impacting the few cancellations that we’re seeing,” Ms. Oberg said in an interview. She added that cancellations have slowed meaningfully from earlier in the pandemic.

The company turned a profit of $422 million, compared with a loss of $234 million in the prior-year period. Revenue more than doubled to $3.15 billion but missed Wall Street estimates.

World-wide occupancy was 50.8% for the quarter, up 32.8 percentage points from a year ago and down 24.1 percentage points from the same quarter in 2019, the company said. Comparable systemwide revenue per available room, a closely watched industry metric known as RevPAR, rose 262.6% world-wide from a year earlier and fell 43.8% from the 2019 level.

In April, leisure, business and group room nights in mainland China were all ahead of 2019 levels for the first time since the pandemic began, Mr. Capuano said. Revenue per available room in mainland China for the second quarter was on par with the comparable period in 2019, he said.

Meanwhile, the company sees challenges in its recovery in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, Mr. Capuano said on a conference call. In Europe, recovery is lagging due to the region’s heavy reliance on international guests, slower border reopenings and shifting restrictions that change on short notice, he said. In the Asia-Pacific, excluding China, recovery stalled in the second quarter as countries such as Japan, India, South Korea and Australia imposed strict lockdowns in the face of sharp rises in Delta-variant cases and low vaccination rates, he added.

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The Delta variant is changing calculations of governments around the world, raising doubts about how quickly they can leave the coronavirus pandemic behind. Although Covid-19 vaccines are holding up well against the Delta variant, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week urged all people in counties with high or substantial transmission of the virus to wear masks in indoor public settings. Some school districts and companies have also moved to implement their own mask mandates.

Marriott, like the rest of the hospitality industry, is also working to resolve its staffing issues in the U.S. The challenges remain in places where demand has rebounded quickly, such as southern Florida, Texas and Arizona, Mr. Capuano said. The company has offered sign-on bonuses, as well as base-salary adjustments in some markets, he said.

After Covid-19 forced hotels, restaurants and bars to shut last year, thousands of workers didn’t just get pushed to the employment sidelines. Many moved on to new careers in digital sales, shipping, mortgage-financing and other businesses that thrived in the pandemic, in what some economists say could mark a lasting shift in the labor market for hospitality staff.

Hotel company Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. last week reported quarterly earnings of $130 million, up from a loss of $430 million in the year-earlier period. Revenue more than doubled to $1.33 billion but was below analysts’ estimates.

Marriott shares fell about 2% midday Tuesday.

Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com